Electronic Pee Sniffer Can Detect Bladder Cancer
Odoreader UWE Bristol News The Odoreader goes where no human nose wants to. A new kind of electronic nose could make diagnosing bladder cancer a whole lot easier, according to a new study published this week in PLOS ONE. Doctors typically diagnose bladder cancer through cytoscopy, a "costly, invasive and undignified procedure," as the researchers put it, that basically involves shoving a little rod up a patient's urethra to look around for tumors in their bladder. Wikipedia notes it can involve "excruciating pain." And to check in on the patient's cancer status, frequent checks are necessary, making bladder cancer an extremely expensive disease to deal with. Previous studies have shown some success in training the cancer equivalent of drug-sniffing dogs: The best performing dog in one study could correctly identified the urine samples of people with bladder cancer 73 percent of the time. The Odoreader, a tabletop device created by scientists...