Researchers have identified a distinct odor profile for skin cancer in the hope of developing a simple, quick and non-invasive way of diagnosing the disease. The findings were reported at the 236th annual meeting of the American Chemical Society, held Aug. 17-21 in Philadelphia by Michelle Gallagher, PhD, George Preti, PhD, and colleagues.

Gallagher and colleagues said that skin emits organic chemicals many of which have a distinctive odor. When they analyzed healthy skin with skin tumor sites they found though the tumors emitted similar chemicals, the amounts differed. "We're the first to identify and quantify the compounds involved in skin cancer odors," said Gallagher.

"We found that the odor profile coming from the skin of skin cancer patients was markedly different than that coming from healthy skin," said Gallagher, who conducted her research while a postdoctoral fellow at the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia."So, we think that this kind of biomarker could be used in a rapid and noninvasive way to detect skin cancer," she said. "And this would be novel, because now the only way to do so is with a visual exam and a biopsy, which is, of course, invasive."

Specific chemical analysis that were used by Gallagher and her team had not been attempted earlier she said, though other research teams have used dogs trained to sniff out skin cancer earlier.

Gallagher hopes their findings will enable them to be able to use an electronic nose, a nanosensor capable of detecting tiny quantities of volatile compounds, to try to detect skin cancer. This device would beep when waved over skin with cancer, similar to the fictional “tricorder” seen in the series Star Trek.

Odor profiling has been used earlier for other types of cancer, with the Cleveland Clinic’s announcement in February of a successful inexpensive breath sensor to detect lung cancer. The current method of diagnosis requires the patient to undergo an often painful biopsy and that too once physical signs of the tumors appear.

Gallagher’s team hopes to develop a separate odor profile for each form of skin cancer and to try to link the profiles to the nanosensor. "This work is preliminary," said Gallagher. "But I think within a few years, it's reasonable to say that this could end up being a diagnostic tool that would be a routine thing one could do in a doctor's office. It's a real possibility."

A word of caution was issued by Dr. Jean-Claude Bystryn, former head of the melanoma program and vaccine clinic at New York University Medical Center. "In terms of this replacing the standard method we have of diagnosing skin cancer, which is basically to look at a specimen under the microscope, it's hard to imagine this would do it completely," he said. "Because when you're dealing with cancer, the margin for error is really small. You don't want to miss something that may be a cancer that then doesn't get treated. And you don't want to treat someone for cancer if they actually have something else. So, it's really a very novel and interesting idea but one which I think really needs to be further researched and carefully confirmed."