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Detecting Disease Through A Simple Breath Test

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Dr. Peter Mazzone is developing a breath test that he calls an "electronic nose" — it sits on a cart, looks like a big computer, and his patients breath into a mouthpiece on the machine — that can tell him what patterns of chemicals are coming out patients' breath. He looks for markers that might indicate diseases like lung cancer.

The test is still in the research stage but Dr. Mazzone tells Here & Now's Robin Young that he thinks the test could also work with other types of cancers.

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This segment aired on August 9, 2011.

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