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Supersleuth Sniffers - Detecting Early Signs of Cancer
Dogs - and their sensitive sense of smell - have been shown to be able to detect early signs of cancer in humans. In tests, especially trained animals were able to recognize cancer markers in the breath of the affected patients.
Scientists at the Leibniz Institue for Analytical Sciences in Dortmund are now working on an electronic nose that can sniff out the characteristic substances even better. The device recognizes specific patterns to identify any one of 600 or more molecules that might betray the presence of lung cancer or other illnesses. The molecular nose could save lives by detecting disease early on.
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