Read more: Click here to read the original, longer version of this story.
DOGS do it. . . Now roundworms have been added to the list of creatures that can detect cancer. Those behind the discovery are working with technology firm Hitachi to turn the finding into a diagnostic test.
To see if Caenorhabditis elegans worms could diagnose cancer, a team led by at Kyushu University in Fukuoka, Japan, placed the worms on Petri dishes dotted with spots of urine from 242 people, 24 of whom had cancer. The worms were attracted to the cancer samples, identifying them correctly 96 per cent of the time, a success rate that the researchers claim is greater than any cancer blood test (PLOS One, ).
Advertisement
This article appeared in print under the headline 鈥淲orms sniff out cancer in urine鈥�