A research by scientists at the Monell Centre and collaborators suggests that a new test is developed that can detect lung cancer only on the basis of a tumour-causing change in the odour of bodily fluids.

Monell biologist Gary K. Beauchamp, a senior author on the study, said, "Cancer tumours result in a change in body related odours that can be detected both by trained animal sensors and by sophisticated chemical techniques".

The finding is based on a study work involving mice, but follow-up studies are in process to witness if this novel approach could support in the early diagnosis of lung cancer in humans.

In behavioural studies, sensor mice were first trained to recognize the scent of urine of animals with lung cancer tumours. The mice were then able to use urine odour to cite a difference between tumour-bearing from healthy animals.

The authors have reflected that lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide. Nearly 220,000 men and women were diagnosed with lung cancer in the United States in 2009 while 160,000 Americans succumbed to the disease in the same year, reveals the American Cancer Society.

Steven M. Albelda, a senior author on the paper and William Maul Measey Professor of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, said, "Finding new ways to screen for early lung cancers in patients at risk, such as smokers, is one of the best ways we have to reduce the high death rate from this disease".