Here is an article that has been passed down to me:
WASHINGTON (AFP) – US chemists have identified the odor that emanates
from skin cancer, a development that researchers hope will advance
diagnosis and treatment of the deadly disease, said a study out Wednesday.
The creation of a “profile” of the chemical odors linked to skin cancer,
may lead to a day when diagnoses can be made by waving a scanner over
the skin, researchers told the annual conference of the American
Chemical Society in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Doctors have already know that skin cancer carries a particular odor,
and recent studies have shown that dogs are able to detect tumors
because they smell differently than normal skin.
“Researchers have speculated that tumors give off different odors, but
we’re the first to identify and quantify the compounds involved in skin
cancer odors,” said chemist Michelle Gallagher, who conducted the study
at the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Gallagher and colleagues analyzed the air above tumor sites in 11
patients diagnosed with basal cell carcinoma, the most common type of
skin cancer, and compared the finding with those taken from healthy
patients.
They found “a different profile of chemicals above tumor sites relative
to healthy skin; the same chemicals are present, but at skin cancer
sites some chemicals are increased, while others are decreased compared
to healthy individuals.”
Around one million new cases of skin cancer are diagnosed each year.
The scientists did not reveal the specific chemicals found, but they
plan to identify a reliable “odor profile” of all three forms of skin
cancer, including squamous cell cancer and melanoma, the deadliest form.
Gallagher said she hoped the findings would “open doors to potential new
approaches to skin cancer diagnosis based on the profile of skin odors,
hopefully leading to more rapid and non-invasive detection and diagnosis.”
Skin cancer is currently diagnosed by taking biopsies of irregular moles
or lesions.
