Behavioural Response Alteration in Caenorhabditiselegans to Urine After Surgical Removal of Cancer: Nematode-NOSE(N-NOSE) for Postoperative Evaluation

摘要

The technique used for cancer monitoring is essential for effective cancertherapy. Currently, several methods such as diagnostic imaging and biochemicalmarkers have been used for cancer monitoring, but these are invasive and showlow sensitivity. A previous study reported that sensitively discriminated patients with cancer from healthysubjects, based on the smell of a urine sample. However, whether olfaction can detect the removal of cancerous tumoursremains unknown. This study was conducted to examine olfactory behaviour to urine samples collected from 78 patients before and aftersurgery. The diagnostic ability of the technique termed Nematode-NOSE (N-NOSE)was evaluated by receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis. The ROC curveof N-NOSE was higher than those of classic tumour markers. Furthermore, weexamined the change in olfactory behaviour followingexposure to preoperative and postoperative samples. The results suggest that areduction in attraction indicates the removal of the cancerous tumour. Thisstudy may lead to the development of a noninvasive and highly sensitive tool forevaluating postoperative cancer patients.