KiasuParents - Parenting in Singapore

I happened to come across an article which claims that some cancer patients have a certain distinct smell on them. But after chemo treatment, they will usually lose that smell.

Wonder if there are any medical professionals here, or anyone with related experiences who can shed some light on this?

There is some research on this. I remember it is possible to train animals to detect cancer in people because of the change in scent. Ah, found an article, but a bit outdated.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/20 ... 090901.htm

Thanks a lot for sharing this research with us but as far as my personal experience is consult I have not noticed any such thing...

I don't think the average human nose can detect the difference. But I'm not a researcher or doctor in this field! Just remember reading the (ongoing) research somewhere and thought it was interesting.

My hub made an interesting observation but it's no scientific prove. He had an ex-colleague in his previous company. He thought she had a strange or very bad case of bad-breath. After some time, she died of nose cancer.

Many yrs later, we met with an old friend during a gathering. They talked for some time and he noticed tt same distinct smell but he didn't think much. That friend also met up with a specialist who insisted tt he went to him for a check after knowing tt he had been having runny nose that won't go away for mths. The result of the consult plus various tests - he had nose cancer in the early stage. The specialist was quite upbeat about his case as usually, nose cancer is diagnosed at a rather late stage where prognosis is not very gd. This friend undergone 5 wks of radiotherapy and is now recovering and very positive about life.

Hi deminc,

Thanks for sharing the article. But I'm actually refering to smell that humans can also pick up, not just animals.

deminc wrote:There is some research on this. I remember it is possible to train animals to detect cancer in people because of the change in scent. Ah, found an article, but a bit outdated.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/20 ... 090901.htm

Thanks for the interesting sharing. So it looks like nose cancer patients usually have a distinct smell that other people can pick up...

pecalis wrote:My hub made an interesting observation but it's no scientific prove. He had an ex-colleague in his previous company. He thought she had a strange or very bad case of bad-breath. After some time, she died of nose cancer.

Many yrs later, we met with an old friend during a gathering. They talked for some time and he noticed tt same distinct smell but he didn't think much. That friend also met up with a specialist who insisted tt he went to him for a check after knowing tt he had been having runny nose that won't go away for mths. The result of the consult plus various tests - he had nose cancer in the early stage. The specialist was quite upbeat about his case as usually, nose cancer is diagnosed at a rather late stage where prognosis is not very gd. This friend undergone 5 wks of radiotherapy and is now recovering and very positive about life.