Odor can help detect lung cancer at early stage: Study
POSTED January 28, 2010 - 13:22 | POSTED BY Neha Jindal
Last edited by Kangna Agarwal on January 28, 2010 - 14:04
The findings of the study conducted on mice could assist in revealing early stage lung cancer in humans.
The lead study author Gary K. Beauchamp, a biologist at Monell Chemical Senses Center said, “This work already proves, at least in principle, that tumors -- in this case lung cancer tumors in mice -- result in a change in odors that ought to be useful for diagnostic purposes.”
Test on animal model
The results were derived from the chemical evaluation of urine taken from healthy mice and mice with cancer tumors.
The research team formulated a ‘rigorously controlled animal model’ to identify smell biomarkers in the urine of mice generated as an effect of organic compound variations caused by lung cancer at the molecular level.
The team apparently trained ‘sensor-mice’ to distinguish the odor in the urine of the mice developing cancerous cells.
The research team found that organic compound changes occurring due to cancerous tumors could be identified in particular.
Results of the study
The research team concluded that their taxonomy method could identify lung cancer 47 times out of 50.
Beauchamp said, “Odor shifts in urine taken from mice with cancer were often linked to a drop in the levels of particular organic compounds.”
He further said, “Although an increase in a compound can change odor, a decrease can change it just as much.”
Beauchamp though cautioned that this analytical approach might not be particularly suitable for humans until after a year, before further examinations and trials take place.
He added, “Although in any case, we don’t foresee this as supplanting other diagnostic methods. Rather, we think -- if it works -- this could be useful as an additional available tool.”
Describing the finding as ‘enormous,’ Dr. Roy Herbst, chief, Thoracic Medical Oncology Section, Department of Thoracic/Head and Neck Medical Oncology at the M.D Anderson Cancer Center in Houston said, “It’s still just in mice, so it’s still early.”
He also added that, “If this works it would give us a way to better understand and better identify those who might have lung cancer earlier, and then to treat the disease, and guide the way we treat it, in more effective ways.”
The study appears online in PLoS One.
