Scientists identify chemical odor of skin cancer: study

AFP, August, 2008

WASHINGTON (AFP) — US chemists have identified the odor that emanates from skin cancer, a development that researchers hope will advance diagnosis and treatment of the deadly disease, said a study out Wednesday.

The creation of a "profile" of the chemical odors linked to skin cancer, may lead to a day when diagnoses can be made by waving a scanner over the skin, researchers told the annual conference of the American Chemical Society in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Doctors have already know that skin cancer carries a particular odor, and recent studies have shown that dogs are able to detect tumors because they smell differently than normal skin.

"Researchers have speculated that tumors give off different odors, but we're the first to identify and quantify the...