Suara.com – A Japanese biotech company has developed a test technology screening use worm small to detect early signs of pancreatic cancer in the urine. The hope, this method can improve routine screening.
This new technology uses urine because the bodily fluids of cancer patients have a different odor than healthy people. Prior to this, dogs had been trained to detect disease in breath or urine samples.
Hirotsu Bio Science also created an innovation by genetically modifying the C. elegans worm. This worm is about one millimeter long but has a keen sense of smell.
These worms are intended to react to the urine of patients with pancreatic cancer, which is notoriously difficult to detect early on.
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“This is a major technological advancement,” said CEO Takaaki Hirotsu at a press conference, Tuesday (11/16/2021), citing Medical Xpress.
Apart from diagnosing pancreatic cancer, this technology can also help improve routine screening because urine samples can be collected at home without the need to go to the hospital.
“If the worm ‘sounds the alarm’, the patient will be referred to a doctor for further examination,” he continued.
Hirotsu hopes that technology can help increase the prevalence of cancer detection in his country because in recent times there has been a decline in screening rates, especially during this corona virus pandemic.
Snag CEO and Osaka University detailed the cancer detection technology using the C. elegans worm in a joint study published earlier this year in the peer-reviewed journal. Oncotarget.
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