New Olfactory Sniffing Device Detects Cancer Cells

A breakthrough electronic nose was able to identify the presence of cancer cells with an accuracy of 92 percent.

By Luke Vorstermans

While the Sense of Smell Lab has put its focus on developing products such as the innovative aromapod, research about the power of olfaction is gaining prominence in many facilities and universities across the globe.
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New research by a team of Israeli scientists, who have been working with olfaction and a cure for cancer, believe they are a step closer to diagnosing this disease at an early stage.

​The majority of cancer patients who survive for a year or more are those who discover the presence of cancerous tissue earlier, which gives them time for proper treatment and a better prognosis. They usually respond well to treatment and live to tell their journey. Another benefit of detecting cancer early is that the cancerous cells haven’t spread too far, providing a higher chance of survival.

Some forms of cancer evade detection by proper scanning methods and may come to light when it’s often too late to save the patient’s life. For people who have lost a loved one to cancer, the question often asked is – why wasn’t this detected earlier, in time to save his or her life?

The new olfactory device is modeled on the olfactory system of the dog and is capable of detecting cancer in the early stages by analyzing the breath of patients. Cancer tumors emanate molecules that circulate through our blood to the lungs and leave the body when we exhale. The electronic nose is capable of detecting the presence of this molecule and therefore able to detect the presence of cancerous tissue in the early stages of development.

The results of the clinical trials, carried out on 100 patients, some whom had cancer and others who didn’t, showed that the electronic olfactory device was able to identify the presence of cancer cells and pinpoint the location and nature of the tumor with an accuracy of 92 percent.

Spokesman for the team said that while the research is in its early stages, the news comes as a ray of hope for the millions of people who live in dread of succumbing to the disease. The test is also a breakthrough, since it is non invasive and it takes very little time as opposed to a fluid test.
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This news is a welcome to the research for cancer and gives more credibility to the power of our olfactory system to detect disease.