This insect can be trained to sniff out cancer

Forget about PET-CT scans and biopsies, these ants might be all you need to find cancer! — AFP

You might have already heard about dogs sniffing out cancer.

Now, it seems that some ants might also be able to differentiate cancerous cells from healthy ones in humans, thanks to their sense of smell.

It might sound like a farfetched idea, but it is currently being investigated by a team of researchers from France’s CNRS, Université Sorbonne Paris Nord, Institut Curie and Inserm.

The scientists have identified a species of ants with a particularly well-developed sense of smell: Formica fusca.

Thirty-six ants were used in the research.

First, the ants were exposed to the smell of a sample of cancerous human cells.

This odour was then associated with a reward of sugar solution.

For the second step, the researchers exposed the ants to two different odours.

One was a new smell and the second was the smell of the cancerous cells.

Once this test was successful, the researchers exposed the ants to different cancerous cells.

The scientists found that “ants discriminate between cancerous and healthy cells, and between two cancerous lines”.

The F. fusca ants were found to be able to detect the volatile organic compounds emitted by cancerous cells after training.

Their research findings are published in the journal iScience.

This kind of approach could lead to a less invasive and less expensive alternative to current detection methods.

But more clinical tests must be carried out before these creepy crawlies could one day be used in clinical settings like hospitals.

In a news release, CNRS points out that “the efficacy of this method must now be assessed using clinical trials on a human being.

“But this first study shows that ants have high potential, are capable of learning very quickly at lower cost, and are efficient.”

This isn’t the first time that scientists have used the animal sense of smell to locate cancerous cells.

“Dogs’ noses are well suited for medical diagnosis and used for the detection of cancer-specific (volatile organic compounds),” the re- searchers explain.

However, training them to do so requires several months.

On the other hand, “insects can be easily reared in controlled conditions, they are inexpensive, they have a very well-developed olfactory system and hundreds of individuals can be conditioned with very few trials,” they point out. – AFP Relaxnews