A SIMPLE 2-minute breath test at a doctor's surgery could detect breast cancer at an early stage.

Some medical conditions cause patients to exhale volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in their breath. In the US, a breath analyser made by Menssana Research of Fort Lee, New Jersey, is already being used to detect telltale VOCs in the breath of patients whose bodies are rejecting a heart transplant.

The system can also be tuned to pick up compounds that are characteristic of other conditions, and early tests on VOCs in the exhaled breath of breast cancer sufferers suggest that it might be a more sensitive detector than mammograms, which can be difficult to interpret.

The hope is that the system could be a more comfortable initial screening for patients before taking a mammogram.