A study shows that ants can detect the scent of cancer in urine.

 A study shows that ants can detect the scent of cancer in urine.

Ants could be used as a cancer bio-detector in the future

Several cancers have been found to change the smell of urine

Cancerous tumors release special chemicals called volatile organic compounds and often shown up in bodily fluids such as sweat and urine.

These compounds can be detected using high-tech equipment or picked by animals with especially sensitive noses.

Now a study shows that ants can sniff out these compounds in urine.

Ants do not have noses, but they have an incredible sense of smell.

They use olfactory receptors their antennae to find food and potential mates.

Researches started by grafting pieces of a human breast-cancer tumor onto mice, then they collected urine from both tumor-laden mice and healthy once and exposed ants belonging to species known as Formica Fusca.

To train the ants to associate the smell of tumors with a reward researchers placed a drop of sugar water in front of the cancerous urine.

When the team removed the sugar water the insects lingered around the pee of cancerous mice for about 20% longer than that of healthy mice because they kept looking for a sweet treat.

Researchers now want to see if the ants can do the same for human urine.

According to the study, ants have the edge over dogs and other animals because they are time-consuming to train.

While dogs can take around six months to train it took only 10 minutes and three training rounds to train ants to sniff out cancer urine.

The insects could be used one day as less expensive and noninvasive detection methods for cancer.

Cancer is one of the leading causes of morality around the world.

Around 10 million people die from cancer every year.

Globally, it is responsible for 1 in 6 deaths.

It is estimated that by 2023, the number of cancer deaths will rise to 13 million.

Early cancer diagnosis greatly increases the chances of successful treatment but current screening methods can be invasive and are costly.

Although an ant-powered tool for the early detection of cancer sounds exciting the research is still far from any kind of clinical application 

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