Do You Smell Skin Cancer?

Wednesday, August 20, 2008 - 17:56 in Biology & Nature

Our skin has an 'odor profile' and that knowledge may open doors to early and noninvasive skin cancer detection and diagnosis, say researchers at the Monell Center, who used odors from skin to identify basal cell carcinoma, the most common form of skin cancer. Human skin produces numerous airborne chemical molecules known as volatile organic compounds, or VOCs, many of which are odorous. In the study presented at the ACS, the researchers obtained VOC profiles from basal cell carcinoma sites in 11 patients and compared them to profiles from similar skin sites in 11 healthy controls. The researchers sampled air above basal cell tumors and found a different profile of chemical compounds compared to skin located at the same sites in healthy control subjects. Read More...

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