Scientists have developed the world’s first early screening test for pancreatic cancer — which uses worms to sniff out tumors.
According to its makers, the test — rolled out this month in Japan — is 100 per cent accurate at spotting the cancer and can detect it at its earliest stages.
Tokyo-based biotech company Hirotsu Bio Science hopes to bring the test to the US by next year.
Users send a urine sample to a lab in the mail, which is added to a petri dish full of dozens of worms called nematodes, which are about one-millimeter long.
They are known for their strong sense of smell, which in the wild they use to seek out their prey.
A urine sample is added to a petri dish with dozens of tiny worms, which have been genetically modified to swim away from traces of pancreatic cancer
The pancreatic cancer survival rate rapidly decreases as time passes from initial diagnosis. The general five-year survival rate in America is 11 per cent, according to Cancer.net
That makes the one-milimetre long animals a potent diagnostic tool, says company founder and chief executive Takaaki Hirotsu, who has been researching them for 28 years.
Hirotsu genetically modified the worms so that they will swim away from pancreatic cancer samples.
Studies of the tests showed it was more effective at detecting bladder cancer tumors than other widely used methods of detection, such as blood tests.
Pancreatic cancer is one of the most deadly types because it is hard to catch early due to a lack of symptoms, and by the time it is caught it’s usually too late.
Roughly 50,000 Americans die of pancreatic cancer every year, and just one in 10 people survive five years after a diagnosis.
Because of the way it is sold straight to patients, the test wouldn’t need FDA approval to be made available in the US.
Hirotsu said: ‘What’s very important with early detection of cancer and these kinds of diseases is being able to sense very trace amounts.
‘And when it comes to that, I think that machines don’t stand a chance against the capabilities that living organisms have.’
Hirotsu Bio launched its first N-NOSE test in January 2020, which claimed to tell if users were at a high risk of cancer.
Around a quarter of a million people have taken the test, with five to six per cent receiving high-risk readings.
The pancreas test kits are sold directly to consumers, rather than a healthcare professional referring patients for the test, and cost $505.
Hirotsu focused on pancreatic cancer first because it is hard to diagnose and progresses very quickly.
There is also no single diagnostic test which can determine if a person has pancreatic cancer.
The company plans to roll out similar test for liver, cervical and breast cancer in the next few years.
But some doctors are skeptical of the results and consumer-based approach.
Masahiro Kami, the head of the Medical Governance Research Institute think tank in Tokyo, warned that false positives could greatly outnumber actual cases of pancreatic cancer, making the results ‘not usable’.
Hirotsu argued that the accuracy of the test is competitive with other diagnostic tools and is intended as an early checking method so patients can access further testing and treatment without delay.
Hirotsu Bio Science chief technical officer Eric Di Luccio examines nematodes in a petri dish at the company’s lab in Fujisawa, Japan
TV ads using caricatures of the worms and the pancreas are being used in Japan to flog the tests, and will help the company build its brand, Mr Hirotsu said.
If the company can scale up, the test’s hefty price tag may reduce over time, he added.
Asked if he particularly likes worms, Mr Hirotsu said: ‘I feel like I have to give the answer that I love nematodes and I find them cute, but that’s not the case at all.
‘Really, I just think of them as research materials and nothing more.’