Researchers aim to detect skin cancer via scent

Here's an interesting one. A group of US experts have discovered that a common form of skin cancer could one day be detected very early on by simply analyzing scents. More specifically, it was found that basal cell carcinomas give off an odor that is distinctly different than samples from healthy skin, which obviously opens up the possibility for "cheap and painless testing." In the future, researchers are hoping to create scent profiles for other types of skin cancer, including the infamous malignant melanoma. Believe it or not, a machine may be only one of the devices used to eventually sniff cancerous cells -- similar research is ongoing using canines and their remarkably sensitives schnozes.

[who? @ Aug 22nd 2008 3:06PM]

My Melanoma smells like grapefruit.

[avester @ Aug 22nd 2008 3:07PM]

By reading engadget and not going out to get a tan, my risk of skin cancer is down a lot.

[David S @ Aug 22nd 2008 3:13PM]

Just don't turn out like Cartman...

http://www.southparkstuff.com/content/images/epiguid/season10/episode1008.jpg

[NHAnimator @ Aug 22nd 2008 3:14PM]

Yeah, but just think about what your dual 20" LCDs, your Blackberry, your iPod and your wireless keyboard and mouse are doing to you.

Have a nice day.

[maty @ Aug 22nd 2008 3:57PM]

Actually LCD radiation is neglegable. CRT monitors are what do the damage.

Wireless keyboards/routers et. emit very low radiation too, a year's expsoure to Wifi equates to a 20 minute phone call.

Ipods don't do any damage to cells other than your ear drums if you crank it up too much.

All that radiation added up accumulates to nothing compared ot going and getting an annual sun tan.

Survival of the fittest. Geeks win.

[Rob @ Aug 22nd 2008 3:09PM]

Just like in the office; you can smell a rat.

[getStringFromObj() @ Aug 22nd 2008 3:11PM]

I, for one, welcome our doom playing, crysis loving, cancer sniffing overlords - because in Russia, cancer sniffs you!

Whew, got that out of the way.

[getStringFromObj() @ Aug 22nd 2008 3:25PM]

I forgot to yell in all caps about how the 3G iPhone rules, microsoft products suck, and the grammar was incorrect. I could have hit a grand slam!

Engadget should have a contest using 60 words or less in three sentences that would cover 90% of all posts on any given topic.

[dnitecki @ Aug 22nd 2008 3:54PM]

I, for one, is a robotic overlord bringing you Doom. Your government sucks, but you already knew that because you read it on digg last month. MY IPHONE PLAYS CRYSIS BETTER THAN YOUR FUGLY VISTA MACHINE!1 Ignore this post, just testing my profile.

[Rick @ Aug 22nd 2008 3:13PM]

This is serious stuff.

I believe that preliminary studies have been done with dogs to look for certain cancers by scent. Companion dogs have been trained to warn of the on-set of epileptic seizures in children and adults.

Dogs cost a lot less than a chemical scent analyzer but then dogs don't vote, don't give campaign contributions, don't lobby Congress, the DOD and TSA, and don't give jobs to members of Congress voted out of office.

[sockatume @ Aug 22nd 2008 3:42PM]

They're also hard to mass-produce and have some practicality issues. I can't stuff sixteen trained sniffer dogs into a 3'x3' storage locker in a hospital and expect them to be usable a week later. If you could just give me the head and make it live on some mechanical contraption, then that'd be fine from a practicality standpoint, but I think it might scare the patients.

The advantage of GC-MS is that it's a bit of general purpose equipment most hospitals' diagnostic labs should already have. I wonder if in-situ MS ion sources like DESI and DART could be pushed in this sort of direction, they have wonderful sensitivity...

[Rick @ Aug 22nd 2008 4:42PM]

GC-MS, DART, DESI still require fairly expensive quadrupole or ion trap detection hardware (unless you are a hospital or rich doctor). The ideal system would employ solid state sensor technology like that being developed by a number of research labs and private companies (such work by Ken Suslick's and Andy Wang's groups at Univ of Illinois).

[Matthew @ Aug 22nd 2008 3:24PM]

What will be interesting is if they can incorporate this into the bomb detecting air blower thingies at the airport. The upside is that you can discover if you got cancer while frying in the sun on your vacation. Talk about early detection!

[BigD145 @ Aug 22nd 2008 3:27PM]

Dogs have been doing this for years and nobody has really taken it seriously. Old news is old.

[Anthony @ Aug 22nd 2008 3:33PM]

I totally agree. I remember reading something about this long ago (dogs can smell something like 1000 times better than us- must suck to be them).

[aardWolf @ Aug 22nd 2008 3:32PM]

"similar research is ongoing using live canines and their remarkably sensitives schnozes."

It's a good thing they're using live canines... the dead ones don't smell too good.

[Spooka @ Aug 22nd 2008 3:49PM]

My dog has no nose.

"How does he smell?"

Terrible.

[AbsoluteZero @ Aug 22nd 2008 3:52PM]

I seem to remember reading about dogs successfully sniffing out melanoma before.

[michaelbushnell @ Aug 22nd 2008 4:02PM]

I was diagnosed with melanoma last year and have had a number of surgeries related to that diagnosis. I can certainly speak with experience related to this topic. The way they currently do biopsies is to shave a piece of your skin off. Its not nearly as bad as the actual melanoma surgery, but it still can be very painful (especially in my case since it was on the back of my neck). Detecting cancer via scent would be much preferred than having a biopsy trust me.

[Jaeson DeLeon @ Aug 22nd 2008 8:37PM]

This is totally something from Snatcher.

[Lia @ Aug 22nd 2008 10:37PM]

What's that, Lassie? Little's Timmy's stuck in a well? And he's got cancer?

[jerry @ Aug 22nd 2008 10:46PM]

mmm

cancer smells tasty