FORGET sniffer dogs - a research team in France has found that trained ants may be effective in detecting cancer in human patients.
A study published in the journal iScience last month found that "ants can rapidly be conditioned to associate the odour of cancer cells with a reward" after looking at how a particular species called Formica fusca reacted to two different types of breast cancer cells.
Apparently it's all about so-called volatile organic compounds (VOCs) which previous studies have found are associated with particular types of cancers.
In a proof-of-concept trial, the researchers found they were able to teach the ants to tell the difference between laboratory samples of cancerous and non-cancerous cells with a similar accuracy to other experiments using cancer-sniffing dogs.
"Ants are thus equivalent to dogs - the most studied bio-detectors - in terms of detection abilities," the report said, noting that the six-legged creatures were actually easier to train and had much lower maintenance costs - only requiring honey and frozen insects twice a week.
So break out those ant farms - and CLICK HERE for more.
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