Electronic 'nose' developed to sniff out cancer

People who are starving (and we're not just talking about the "I wish lunchtime would hurry up already" variety) undergo a life-threatening process called ketoacidosis. One symptom is sweet, fruity or acetone-like smelling breath.This is a problem typically associated with people who have diabetes. Ketoacidosis occurs when the body cannot use the glucose (or sugar), so it uses the fat instead. Ketones, which are the byproducts of the fat breakdown, then builds up in the body.

Scientists say the breath of someone with liver failure can smell like raw fish.

"Urine" trouble if your urine smells like ammonia. Researchers say that smell is linked to people with bladder infections.

People with schizophrenia emit the smell of vinegar through their sweat, researchers say.

According to researchers, yellow fever can make a person's skin smell like a butcher's shop.

Researchers have linked the smell of stale beer to patients with Scrofula, which is a lymph node infection.

Acute tubular necrosis, which is when the tubular epithelial cells that form the renal tubules of the kidneys dies, can cause urine to smell like stale water.

People who suffer from an pseudnomonas infection (which is caused by a common bacteria attributed to swimmer's ear; it usually doesn't harm people but can turn deadly) can emit a grape odor from their skin and sweat.

Intestinal obstructions or blockages can cause breath to smell feculent and foul.

Bacterial proteolysis causes the skin to smell like over-ripe Camembert cheese.

Anaerobic infection can cause the skin and sweat to smell like rotten apples.

General sickness can also be sniffed out. Volunteers smelled the t-shirts of participants who had been injected with both a placebo and a chemical that gave them flu-like symptoms. Volunteers were given samples of the participant's shirts to sniff. Low and behold, volunteers were seemingly able to sniff out the disease early on.

Maybe Lynyrd Skynyrd's classic song "Ooh That Smell" is on to something (at least in the science community.) Doctors and researchers have long-known there is a distinct odor associated with diseases and illnesses. But now, scientists are turning to technology to help sniff out cancer.

A machine with an electronic nose has been developed that can help detect breast cancer, according to the BBC. It sounds far-fetched, but scientists reportedly say the results are just as good as a mammogram.

The finding comes not long after a study by the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden. The group determined that humans are seemingly able to sniff out sickness in other humans.

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During the study, 80 healthy volunteers wore tight cotton t-shirts. Half were injected with a placebo and the other half were injected with a chemical that gave them a flu-like reaction. A month later, participants were given the other solution, in other words, the solution that they weren't given the first time.

Volunteers were given samples of the participant's shirts to sniff. Low and behold, volunteers were seemingly able to sniff out the illness early on.

What's more, both dogs and even the antenna on fruit flies have been found to detect cancer.

Cancer researchers are setting their sights on what cancer-sniffing dogs could mean for ovarian cancer, which as been dubbed "the silent killer" since it is often diagnosed too late for treatment to be effective.