A new non-invasive technique allows the diagnosis of prostate cancer in urine – or rather just above it.
It is an electronic "nose" that smells urine from a close distance and can distinguish prostate tumors from simple and benign hyperplasia of the organ.
The results, in terms of reliability, are approximately comparable to those achieved by testing the prostate-specific antigen (PSA) in the blood.
Electronic "nose" technology is beginning to be tested and applied in more and more cases, in medicine and other fields (agriculture, food quality, military applications, etc.).
Early detection of cancer is one of the main areas where efforts are being made to exploit it (e.g. lung cancer, by smelling patients' breath).
The researchers, who published the relevant paper in the urology journal “The Journal of Urology”, expressed optimism that doctors will soon have at their disposal a new simple method of early diagnosis thanks to eNose.
The "nose" smells the air directly above the patient's urine sample, without the need for any other analysis, as reported by the Athens News Agency.
Prostate cancer is the second most common form of cancer in men and one of the leading causes of death.
The heterogeneity of prostate tumors makes it difficult to diagnose and predict their progression. Current diagnostic techniques (such as PSA) are not completely reliable, while biopsies are expensive, uncomfortable for the patient, and potentially dangerous, causing infection.
Furthermore, many cases of diagnosed prostate cancer actually progress very slowly and will not threaten the patient's life.
Therefore, it would be better if he avoided an aggressive treatment with surgical removal of the organ, but this is often exactly what happens – with the corresponding unpleasant side effects for the patient's quality of life.
That's why doctors have long been looking for an alternative non-invasive diagnostic technique, which the electronic nose seems to be able to offer.
As early as the 1980s, it was noted that dogs could sniff out their owners' cancer with remarkable success. This fact sparked a series of experiments that have now confirmed this ability of the lovable animals.
But because dogs have high fluctuating success rates, researchers are trying to create electronic noses that will be systematically more reliable thanks to the integration of special sensors that can detect in the air the molecules of volatile organic chemicals that come from human cancer.
The Finnish clinical trial - using the ChemPro® 100-eNose electronic nose, manufactured by the Finnish company Environics - was conducted in 50 patients with diagnosed prostate cancer (confirmed through biopsy), as well as in 15 people with benign prostatic hyperplasia.
The "nose" was able to distinguish malignant from benign cases by simply smelling urine samples and showed a diagnostic sensitivity for cancer of 78%. The researchers will continue their efforts to improve the diagnostic reliability of the "nose".
Source: real.gr
