Israeli scientists training rats to sniff out lung cancer now want UK trial

Israeli scientists training rats to sniff out lung cancer from human urine are hoping to conduct a next-stage trial in the UK, after tests showed a 93 percent accuracy rate.

Rats are known for their highly sensitive sense of smell and tests show that they can identify which urine samples come from lung cancer patients nine times out of ten.

Boffins at Israeli firm Early Labs, which has spent two years training the rats, now want to test it in clinical trials in the UK. The test can be taken at home, then the sample is taken to GP surgeries or pharmacies to be sent off to a lab.

Lung cancer is the UK’s biggest cancer killer. Every year, 50,000 are diagnosed, and 35,000 die of the disease.

Scientists now know that some cancers trigger specific body odours when the cancerous cells come into contact with the immune system. These odours are then picked up in bodily fluids such as urine.

Avichay Porat, the firm’s chief operating officer, described it as “a real game-changer”, adding that the technique was now also being tested on colon cancer samples.

It is not only cancer that rats have been trained to smell, but tuberculosis as well. They were also used in a successful landmine detection programme, in part because they are light enough to sniff them out without setting them off.