Japanese researchers have found a new way to determine cancer and they used wormlike nematodes to be tested on. The worms were attracted to urine of cancer patients and this can be a new way to test and detect cancer. A new way for simpler and low-cost testing will come from these new findings. More people would have access to cancer detection tests and will lessen the risk of cancer developing to worst stage. Kyushu University leads the tests and they have found that these worms can eventually detect various cancers such as stomach, prostate and pancreatic cancers. Test screenings will be greatly simplified once the worms are used in future tests and it will lower the price for everyone to avail of.
Cancer patients during a meeting at Maebashi
The experiment used 242 urine samples that were placed on the sides of a plate, the worms were positioned in the middle and they made their way to the urine that were cancer positive. 24 out of 25 times were the worms able to detect the cancer. The worms were attracted to the urine odors of the cancer positive patients. 218 samples of urine were cancer free and the worms moved away from 207 of those, the accuracy rate is 95%.
Kyushu University has applied for international patent on the discovery that they made and the team is looking into commercializing these findings in the next ten years. It will greatly change the way that medical field views cancer and how they can better their research with the use of these new findings. Hideto Sonoda is a co-author of the research paper that got the idea of detecting cancer with worms through an incident of food poisoning. The patient was suffering from food poisoning after eating mackerel and Anisakis worms were concentrating around the cancer cells in the gastric walls of the patient that led to earlier detection of cancer.
Image from Asahi