Skin Cancer Carries Its Own Scent

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The sampling revealed that cancerous tissue and healthy tissue contained different VOC "recipes," exuding different smells.

While skin cancer tissue did not produce any new VOCs, the diseased area had more of some chemicals and less of others.

The team hopes to develop an odor profile for each form of skin cancer, after which an attempt would be made to link the profiles to nano-sensor technology to fashion a kind of "electronic nose." The authors envision the resulting device as a kind of diagnostic wand, designed to sweep across the surface of the skin and detect cancer.

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"This work is preliminary," said Gallagher. "But I think within a few years, it's reasonable to say that this could end up being a diagnostic tool that would be a routine thing one could do in a doctor's office. It's a real possibility."

However, Dr. Jean-Claude Bystryn, former head of the melanoma program and vaccine clinic at New York University Medical Center, issued a word of caution.

"In terms of this replacing the standard method we have of diagnosing skin cancer, which is basically to look at a specimen under the microscope, it's hard to imagine this would do it completely," he said. "Because when you're dealing with cancer, the margin for error is really small. You don't want to miss something that may be a cancer that then doesn't get treated. And you don't want to treat someone for cancer if they actually have something else. So, it's really a very novel and interesting idea but one which I think really needs to be further researched and carefully confirmed."

More information

For details on skin cancer diagnosis, visit the American Cancer Society.

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