These insects detect cancer with nearly 90% accuracy
Key Takeaways
Researchers are exploring the use of honey bees' sense of smell to detect cancer, including early stages, potentially leading to the development of a breath test for early diagnosis.
Studies show that honey bees can detect cancer biomarkers with an 88% success rate, highlighting their exceptional sensitivity to different types of lung cancer cells.
As cancer becomes more prevalent across the world, especially in younger adults, scientists are eager to develop easy-to-use tests that can detect the disease early before it spreads throughout the body.[] They’re toying with blood tests, improving stool tests, and inventing urine exams.[]
Another tool that might prove useful in the race to detect cancer in its earliest stages: Honey bees. A new study published in Biosens Bioelectron earlier this month found that honey bees are exceptionally skilled at smelling different types of lung cancer cells.[]
The researchers believe the findings may help scientists develop a breath test that can catch cancer before it causes symptoms. Michael Parnas is one of the researchers involved in the study and is a doctoral candidate working in the Bioengineering of Olfactory Sensory Systems lab at Michigan State University. “In the future, we hope that biological olfaction-based sensors can detect cancer from human breath early and non-invasively," Parnas told MDLinx.
Honey bees detected tiny amounts of cancer cells
Parnas and his research team at Michigan State University whipped up multiple batches of synthetic human breath. Six of them contained cancer biomarkers—linked to both non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and small cell lung cancer (SCLC)—at different concentrations. They also created a synthetic version of a healthy person’s breath. As Mohamed S. Draz, PhD, an assistant professor in the department of biomedical engineering at Case Western Reserve University, explains, “cancer metabolism produces specific compounds that are exhaled in the breath.”
The researchers exposed the bees to the mixtures and measured neuronal responses from the honey bees’ antennal lobes. They found that the bees, which are known for their sharp sense of smell, were exceptionally good at detecting the synthetic breath that contained cancer cells—the bees had a 88% success rate—and differentiating between different types of cancer (in this case, NSCLC and SCLC). “Bees can potentially detect these differences in VOCs, identifying patterns or specific markers that indicate the presence of cancer,” Dr. Draz said.
This experiment differs from how animal smell studies are typically conducted in animals, according to Parnas. Usually, researchers evaluate an animal’s behavior to understand what they’re smelling. “Instead, we recorded how neurons within their brains responded to the different cancer and non-cancer odors,” explained Parnas. The neurons in the bees’ brains responded differently to each of the odors the bugs encountered. This “basically means that the honey bee brain was detecting differences between the smells,” Parnas said.
The researchers also found that the bees could detect very low concentrations associated with early cancer stages. Parnas says the team wasn’t surprised the bees could smell cancer—but they were impressed by just how sensitive the bug’s sense of smell is. “This gives us confidence that the honey bees would be able to detect both early stages and later stages,” Parnas said.
Bees might help people catch cancer early—before it progresses
Identifying cancer in earlier stages improves health outcomes and saves lives, according to the World Health Organization. “Early detection of cancer significantly improves treatment outcomes and survival rates, particularly for lung cancer,” Dr. Draz said. When cancer is diagnosed at a later stage, treatment options are limited and prognosis is poor, research shows—unfortunately, roughly 50% of cancer cases are detected at a late stage.[]
Healthcare practitioners currently utilize mammograms, CT scans, pap smears, colonoscopies, sigmoidoscopies, and stool tests to screen for cancer. But many people skip these routine exams. Additionally, there are no screening tests for many types of cancers—cases are often diagnosed based on a person’s symptoms. Scientists are eager to create new tests that detect cancer cells before the disease causes symptoms. “There is a critical need for better, non-invasive diagnostic tools that can identify cancer at its earliest stages,” Dr. Draz said.
Breath tests for early identification of cancer have been investigated for years,[] says Daniel Landau, MD, an oncologist, hematologist and contributor for The Mesothelioma Center at Asbestos.com. While evidence has shown that breath tests hold promise, technological issues have prevented it from becoming clinically available. However, as these new findings reveal, the solution may be closer than we realized, Dr. Landau added.
Honey bees could be the answer. “Insect olfaction-based sensors can be used for early cancer screening,” Parnas said. His team suspects there might be a non-invasive device that, utilizing information regarding how bees differentiate various scents, could be developed to screen the general population for cancer. It’d be cheap, he says, and reliable.
More studies are needed—particularly clinical trials utilizing actual human breath—to determine how breath tests could be used not just for cancer, but other hard-to-treat diseases as well. “This type of research is very exciting and holds the potential for unexpected findings beyond the tested hypothesis,” Dr. Draz said.
What this means for you
As cancer becomes more prevalent, especially among younger adults, scientists are developing easy-to-use tests for early detection, including blood, stool, and urine tests. A recent study found that honey bees can detect different types of lung cancer cells with an 88% success rate, which could lead to the development of a non-invasive breath test.