An 'electronic nose' that can identify hard-to-find malignancies with 95% accuracy could revolutionize how doctors define fatal disease.
The University of Pennsylvania has developed an artificial intelligence system using nanosensors that can detect vapors in blood samples from benign, pancreatic and ovarian cancer cells.
In addition, the electric rhinoplasty correctly diagnosed all patients with early-stage cancer in less than 20 minutes, while conventional procedures could take days or weeks.
The scientists looked at samples from 93 individuals for the electrical nose test. Twenty had ovarian cancer, twenty had benign ovarian tumors, twenty had identical ovarian tumors without cancer, thirteen had pancreatic cancer, ten had benign pancreatic cancer.
Ovarian cancer patients can be detected with 95 percent accuracy, while pancreatic cancer patients can be identified with 90 percent accuracy, according to the method.
Conventional cancer detection methods required specialists to take a biopsy, which may arise from the abdomen, bone marrow, or other areas of the body once the sample has been taken.
According to Cancer.net, the tissue is then taken to a laboratory where it is evaluated by a pathologist who decides whether and what type of tissue the removed tissue contains.
Depending on the complexity of the scenario, this may take as little as two to three days or it may take seven to ten days.
On the other hand, a new invention from the University of Pennsylvania may revolutionize the procedure, making it faster and easier to complete.