Ants and the detection of cancer in patients
July 5th, 2022, by Labtoo's team
Did You Know, ants can be trained to detect cancer
Being one of the world’s leading causes of death, cancer is a fairly researched subject. Recently, it has been discovered that ants have the ability to detect cancer.
We knew that dogs were able to detect Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) as biomarkers for cancer. The downside is that the training is time-consuming and expensive.
This is no longer a problem with F. fusca ants. Just like dogs, they can be quickly trained to detect VOCs odors. One important note is that not only are they able to detect cancer from healthy cells, but they also can differentiate different types of cancer.
Indeed, each cancer has a specific VOC, and with the appropriate training, the ants can smell the difference and detect specific cancer.