By: Celina Cai

Scientists have been trying to find a way to fight cancer, including lung cancer. Lung cancer can be found with dogs, by sniffing out their owner. But there is also anther harmless way to find it. It is with a type of worm called C. elegans, which is only 1 millimeter (0.04 in.) long. Since they are so small, it is easy to fit them on a handheld chip kind of like a microscope slide. It has three large indents or wells. This chip is made by putting a healthy cell and a cell with lung cancer on each side. Then the worm is put in the middle. The worm can sniff out the side with lung cancer. 70 percent of the worms go to the cell with lung cancer. We don’t know what the worms are thinking, and why they go to the cells with cancer. But biotechnologist Shin Sik Choi thinks that it’s part of nature.

“In nature, a rotten apple is the best place to find worms. And cancer cells release many of the same odor molecules as a rotten apple, “he says.

Scientists hope this method will help safely detect lung cancer in the future, unlike like CT scans, which can deliver unsafe levels radiation if received too often. Such radiation may also lead to cancer, which is why scientists only use CT scan when they must. Scientists hope that C. elegans can not only find cancer in cells, but also in saliva and blood.