メディエイゴ

According to(1) new research from the Monell Center, odors(2) from skin can be used to identify(3) basal cell carcinoma(4), the most common form of skin cancer(5). The findings, presented at the 236th meeting of the American Chemical Society, may open doors to(6) development of new methods to detect(7) basal cell carcinoma and other forms of skin cancer.

The researchers(8) sampled(9) air above basal cell tumors(10) and found a different profile(11) of chemical compounds(12) compared to skin located at the same sites in healthy control subjects(13).

“Our findings may someday allow doctors to screen for and diagnose(14) skin cancers at very early stages(15), ” said Michelle Gallagher, PhD(16).

Human skin produces numerous(17) airborne(18) chemical molecules(19) known as volatile organic compounds(20), or VOCs, many of which are odorous(21). In the study presented at the ACS, the researchers obtained VOC profiles from basal cell carcinoma sites in 11 patients and compared them to profiles from similar skin sites in 11 healthy controls.

Both profiles contained the same array of(22) chemicals; the difference involved the amounts of specific chemicals(23) – some were increased and others decreased in samples from basal cell carcinoma sites.

The researchers plan to characterize(24) skin odor profiles associated with(25) other forms of skin cancer, including squamous cell carcinoma(26) and melanoma(27), the most serious form of skin cancer.

To identify changes related to(28) cancer, the researchers first needed to identify a normative(29) profile for VOCs and to determine whether this profile varies as a function of(30) age, gender or body site.