'Electric nose' powered by AI can SNIFF out cancer in blood samples with 95% accuracy

An'electric nose' capable of sniffing out hard-to-detect cancers with 95 percent accuracy may soon change the way specialists diagnose the potentially fatal disease. Scientists at the University of Pennsylvania designed an artificial intelligent-powered system equipped with nanosensors to identify vapors from blood samples that are specific to benign, pancreatic and ovarian cancer cells. The tool also correctly identified all patients with early-stage cancers and did so in less than 20 minutes – traditional methods can take days or weeks to produce results. To test the electric nose, the team analyzed samples from 93 patients. Approximately 20 had ovarian cancer, 20 with benign ovarian tumors and 20 age-matched controls with no cancer, as well as 13 patients with pancreatic cancer, 10 patients with benign pancreatic disease, and 10 controls.