Detecting cancer through breath? Wife’s death prompts entrepreneur to create portable device to improve cancer screening, diagnose early

Silicon Valley academic and start-up generator Vivek Wadhwa envisions a breathalyser-type tool to detect cancer using only people’s breath

Before she died, his wife asked him to prevent other people from suffering the same way; earlier detection might have changed her outcome

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Vivek Wadhwa has big plans for a small cancer-detection breathalyser-type device. The idea was inspired by his wife’s early death from cancer that was discovered too late. Photo: LinkedIn

Published: 4:15am, 10 Oct 2023

Over the last five years, Vivek Wadhwa, an entrepreneur and academic who is well known in Silicon Valley, has been working on a long-shot project to detect cancer in people using only their breath – similar to using a breathalyser.

Wadhwa’s new company is called Vionix Biosciences. Its goal of collecting health information in a less invasive way has long been a dream of technologists.

Elizabeth Holmes’ failed blood-testing start-up Theranos had a similar goal. But unlike Holmes, who overpromised in the company’s early days, Wadhwa is starting small. He has brought on advisers from Harvard Medical School, the Mayo Clinic and Massachusetts General Hospital to try to prove the concept.

So far, he has spent about US$500,000 of his own cash on the initiative and plans to spend US$500,000 more, aiming to have a working prototype later this year or in 2024.

A woman exhales into a device. Wadhwa has been working on a project to detect cancer in people using only their breath – similar to using a breathalyser. Photo: Shutterstock

If the device works, such a tool could improve certain types of cancer screening and allow for earlier detection in underserved communities, though plenty of obstacles remain.

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Detecting cancer through breath? Wife’s death prompts entrepreneur to create portable device to improve cancer screening, diagnose early

Silicon Valley academic and start-up generator Vivek Wadhwa envisions a breathalyser-type tool to detect cancer using only people’s breath Before she died, his wife asked him to prevent other people from suffering the same way; earlier detection might have changed her outcome

Silicon Valley academic and start-up generator Vivek Wadhwa envisions a breathalyser-type tool to detect cancer using only people’s breath

Before she died, his wife asked him to prevent other people from suffering the same way; earlier detection might have changed her outcome