Nematodes for cancer diagnosis

Scientists want to teach worms to detect the exact type of cancer by smell

Ksenia Naka, RIA Novosti

An affordable way to detect 15 types of cancer starting from the zero stage has been developed in Japan. Hirotsu Takaaki, CEO of Hirotsu Bio Science Inc., told RIA Novosti about how scientists managed to get nematode roundworms to detect cancer quickly and inexpensively, as well as about the prospects for early detection of such difficult–to-diagnose types of cancer pathology as pancreatic cancer and others.

"The method was based on the motor reaction of nematodes (roundworms about 1 millimeter long – ed.) to a chemical stimulus – they move to the smell that they like and move away from the one that they don't like. This is a completely new, hitherto unknown analysis for oncopathology. Due to whether the worms will approach the patient's urine or not, we will be able to determine whether he has cancer," the head of the company said.

The starting point for the developers was the use of dogs to detect cancer. Such techniques and trainings are used in Japan: dogs learn to distinguish a healthy person from a person with cancer by smell.

"The basis was the assumption that if dogs can distinguish people with cancer from healthy people, then nematodes, whose genetic sense of smell is 1.5 times sharper than that of a dog, and who are able to catch the subtlest smell, elusive for devices, will also probably be able to distinguish sick people from healthy ones. We began to study the reaction of worms to the urine of cancer patients and healthy people," explained the CEO of Hirotsu Bio Science Inc.

In the course of research, it turned out that nematodes concentrate in a urine sample of a person with cancer, without showing interest in the urine of a healthy person.

Drawing from the website hbio.jp – VM.

By this method, 15 types of oncopathology can be determined today: cancer of the stomach, colon, lungs, breast, uterus, pancreas, liver, prostate, esophagus, ovaries, bile ducts and gallbladder, bladder, kidneys, oral and pharyngeal cancer. The accuracy of cancer detection by this method as of September 2019 was 86.8%. Moreover, starting from the earliest stages of the disease – zero or the first, the accuracy of determination almost does not change – about 85%

"Since January, we have started providing this type of service in a number of medical institutions in Japan. And we have orders from 500 more institutions. The analysis is quite affordable – 9800 yen (about $ 89). There are many offers from other countries. Yes, we receive many offers from other countries. These are not only orders for the introduction of this method of diagnosis, but also proposals for joint research," Hirotsu Takaaki said.

So far, the method proposed by the company cannot determine what kind of oncopathology the patient has, it only indicates its presence. The task of identifying the type of cancer is the next stage of research.

"We are working on creating special types of worms by changing their genes, which could identify a specific type of cancer. We set a goal to breed worms that could identify such a difficult-to-diagnose type of cancer pathology as pancreatic cancer, and come to the implementation of such tests in two years," the head of the company said.

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