Honeybees can detect lung cancer, researchers say
"These results indicate that the honeybee olfactory system can be used as a sensitive biological gas sensor to detect human lung cancer," the study authors wrote.
Saha, an assistant professor in the College of Engineering and MSUs Institute for Quantitative Health Science and Engineering, sought to determine whether honeybees could distinguish chemicals in a healthy persons breath from that of someone sick with lung cancer.
His team developed a "recipe" for a synthetic breath mixture that contained six compounds present in the breath of someone with cancer and a synthetic "healthy" breath mixture.
"It took a steady hand to create the recipe," said Elyssa Cox, Sahas former lab manager. "We tested the synthetic lung cancer versus healthy human breath mixtures on approximately 20 bees."
The researchers placed each live bee in a custom 3D-printed harness and attached a tiny electrode to its brain to measure activity.
"We pass those odors on to the antenna of the honeybees and recorded the neural signals from their brain," said Saha. "We see a change in the honeybees neural firing response."
The researchers found that the bees were able to detect the cancer-indicating compounds even in small amounts.
"The honeybees detected very small concentrations; it was a very strong result," said Saha. "Bees can differentiate between minute changes in the chemical concentrations of the breath mixture, which is in the parts per 1 billion range."
The bees also could tell the difference between the synthetic lung cancer breath and healthy breath.
Scientists hope this research will lead to the development of a sensor based on a honeybee brain that can be used to test human breath for the presence of lung cancer.
"Whats amazing is the honeybees ability to not only detect cancer cells, but also distinguish between cell lines of various types of lung cancer," said Autumn McLane-Svoboda, a graduate student on Sahas team. "The future implications for this are huge, as our sensor could allow for patients to receive specific cancer diagnoses quickly, which is imperative for correct treatment routes."
Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death worldwide. An estimated 235,580 people will be diagnosed with lung cancer in 2024 in the U.S., according to the Lung Cancer Research Foundation.
