Menssana Research is the leading developer of advanced new breath tests for detection of disease.

Early detection of diseases can often bring huge benefits: some cancers can be completely eradicated if they are detected early and treated promptly.

But early detection often requires an invasive test, which comes at a price. A biopsy may be painful and x-rays are potentially harmful. And most invasive tests are expensive.

The challenge to modern medicine is to develop non-invasive tests which can detect diseases without causing pain or damage to the body, and cost less.

Menssana Research was founded on a physician's daydream. Dr. Michael Phillips wondered: "Could we detect some diseases in their earliest and most treatable stages simply by analyzing breath?"

Breath testing is probably the least invasive of all diagnostic tests. Even the very elderly and the very ill can generally donate a breath sample without inconvenience. But chemical analysis of breath is technically very difficult, which is why breath testing has played only a minor role in medical diagnosis until recently.

We have developed a portable breath collection apparatus (BCA) which can collect breath samples virtually anywhere, for highly sensitive laboratory analysis. The BCA is being used in clinical research studies in hospitals in the USA and Europe, and has even collected breath samples in a USAF air force transport jet at high altitude.

We are now performing clinical studies with the BCA, mostly funded by the National Institutes of Health, to evaluate breath testing in several diseases including lung cancer, breast cancer, heart transplant rejection, ischemic heart disease, kidney disease and diabetes mellitus. The Food and Drug Administration has approved the breath test for heart transplant rejection for clinical use.

The founder and chief executive officer of Menssana Research, Inc, is Michael Phillips MD, FACP. He is also Professor of Clinical Medicine at New York Medical College, Valhalla, New York.