Trained ants could soon be used to screen for cancer

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French researchers have demonstrated that a certain species of ant can detect cancer cells as effectively as other animals with bio-sensing abilities, such as dogs.

Conclusive preliminary tests

Screening for cancer is a major public health issue, but the methods currently used to detect cancer cells, such asIRM and mammography, are often invasive and costly. In order to circumvent these constraints, alternative approaches such as the use of animal sense of smell are currently being studied.

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In the context of work published in the journal iScienceresearchers from CNRS performed lab tests on 36 ants of the species Formica Beetle. The latter focused on two types of breast cancer cells, with profiles of volatile organic compounds (COV) different.

The team exposed the insects to a sample of human cancer cells, combined with a reward in the form of a sugar solution much appreciated by ants. After only a few minutes of training, the latter were able to differentiate them from healthy cells as effectively as sniffer dogs, which can take up to twelve months to train for this purpose.

Formica fusca — © Paul Devienne / Laboratory of Experimental and Comparative Ethology / Sorbonne Paris Nord University

The ability of ants to distinguish different COV further suggests that these insects might also be used to identify several types of cancer.

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An affordable, fast and reliable screening tool

Having the advantage of being easily reared under controlled conditions, insects are inexpensive and have an extremely developed olfactory system. Hundreds of individuals can also be conditioned with very little testing, making these creatures an affordable, fast and reliable cancer screening tool.

For the researchers, the next step will be to evaluate the effectiveness of this approach in clinical trials.

« Our approach might potentially be adapted for a range of other complex odor detection tasks, including narcotics, explosives, spoiled food or other diseases including malaria, infections and diabetes. “, conclude the authors of the study.

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