Diagnosing prostate cancer non-invasively and with more accuracy than standard diagnostic techniques is becoming a reality. This is supported by the findings of a research published in the scientific journal International Journal of Urology, which tested the efficiency of the first prototype of an electronic nose that detects the presence of neoplasms in urine samples by recognizing certain volatile molecules. Diag-Nose, the project from which a first experimental prototype was produced, is the result of a tight partnership between Humanitas and Politecnico di Milano. The first findings are encouraging: the examination properly detects the existence of the tumor in 85.2% of ill patients and is appropriately negative in 79.1% of healthy individuals. Also, the prototype differs from the usual technique of biopsy in many ways: in addition to being an intrusive examination, the biopsy has a high false negative rate in early tumors due to the fact to the fact that only a small portion of the organ is extracted and evaluated.
|