VOCxi Health and S3 Connected Health have entered a partnership agreement to develop and market a lung cancer detection and monitoring device.

VOCxi currently has a breath analyser device, BreathEZ, which is designed to detect lung cancer by analysing volatile compounds in the exhaled air. The device is supposed to help in early detection of lung cancer, thereby, improving survival rates for affected patients.

S3 Connected has a digital health platform, Affinal, which is designed to better integrate digital services.

As per the partnership agreement, VOCxi plans to leverage S3’s Affinal platform to create a custom mobile application and a cloud-based solution for BreathEZ. The companies also plan on expanding the usage of BreathEZ to other disease indications.

S3 Connected's medtech solutions director Bill Betten said: “It is a game-changing product that takes full advantage of our digital health system capabilities, including rapid deployment via our Affinial platform while providing a base for future growth to match VOCxi’s plans.”

Cancer screening and diagnosis is an area of increased development. As per GlobalData analysis, there are more than 500 clinical trials being conducted for devices that aid cancer diagnosis.

How BreathEZ works

The breath analysis is a non-invasive method for cancer detection. BreathEZ has a collection of nanosensors that measure the volatile organic compounds present in exhaled air over a minute of breath.

The breath analysis method is based on the hypothesis that cancer cells release different volatile compounds as a by-product. These volatile compounds can then be used to detect cancers and monitor the response to treatment.

The BreathEZ sensors are capable of measuring chemicals with concentrations as low as single parts per billion. These chemicals are then analysed using VOCxi’s Breathprint database to detect and monitor diseases.