By: Derek Sun

Weird as it may sound, scientists have discovered that worms might be able to sniff out cancer.

The cancer-detecting worm in question is the common roundworm, Caenorhabditis elegans. At just one millimeter long, multiple worms can fit onto a handheld plastic chip. These chips have three slits, one of which has healthy human cells, the other which has worms, and the last one which has diseased cancer cells.

“About 70 percent of the worms move toward the cancer,” says Shin Sik Choi. He is a biotechnologist who helped develop the worm-on-a-chip system. This is likely because the worms have an amazing sense of smell, comparable to that of dogs. This is even more impressive when considering the worms only have 302 nerve cells in their entire body, compared to a human’s 86 billion nerve cells. “It’s been reported that dogs can sniff out people who have lung cancer,” says Paul Bunn. “This study,” he says, “is another step in the same direction.

When the worm detects cancer on the chip, a nerve cell starts to glow. Since C. elegans is transparent, it is easily seen with a microscope. The reason doctors are studying the use of worms instead of CT scans to detect cancer is that CT scans contain radiation, which can be harmful to humans in large doses. Doctors try to only use CT scans when they suspect cancer, so using the worms will allow the evaluation of more patients. Regular CT scans can cause cancer, so even if the worms are not as accurate, they are a safer alternative.

Another safe tool used instead of CT scans to detect cancer is called BreathX. BreathX, a breath analyzer, can detect different diseases, and each disease has its own “fingerprint.” For example, lung cancer will show differently than tuberculosis. While neither BreathX nor the worm-on-a-chip is intended to diagnose cancer, they are valuable tools to decide whether or not high-risk patients need a CT scan.