Can Bees Sniff out Cancer?

New Article Suggests Bees May be Able to Sniff Out Cancer

Credit: Susana Soares

A recent article that appeared on Smithsonian.com says that new research may prove that bees are able to detect cancer.  Insects, including bees, have such a keen sense of smell that they are able to detect smells made up by only a few molecules.

According to the article “Can Bees Be Trained to Sniff Out Cancer?”

U.K.-based product designer Susana Soares has created a simple, elegant way of harnessing bees to screen for a number of diseases, including cancers, like tumors of the lung and ovaries. Her glass apparatus, called “Bee’s,” features a large chamber and a smaller connected chamber housed within it. After training the bees to associate a specific chemical odor with a food reward, such as sugar, the insects are released into the diagnostic device through an opening. Patients would simply blow into the smaller compartment and wait to see if a swarm gathers toward something alarming in the person’s breath.

Insects are great detectors due to their antennae.  Bees have an accuracy rate of 98% and have been known to detect tuberculosis, diabetes, cancers, along with other diseases and illnesses.

Read the full article Can Bees Be Trained to Sniff Out Cancer?