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A Japanese biotech company has announced it has developed the world's first early screening test for pancreatic cancer using tiny worms, Reuters reported.

This month, Hirotsu BioSciences began direct marketing of its N-NOSE plus Pancreas test in Japan and hopes to bring it to the U.S. in 2023.

Patients provide a urine sample to the lab, which is placed in petri dishes with C. elegans worms, whose sense of smell is stronger than that of dogs, the company says.

Through it, the worms detect cancer cells.

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This makes the millimeter-long living organisms a powerful diagnostic tool, said company founder and CEO Takaaki Hirotsu, who has studied the worms for 28 years.

"In the early diagnosis of cancer and these types of diseases, it is very important to be able to find all the traces. In my opinion, in this regard, machines have no chance against the abilities of living organisms," he explained to Reuters.

early diagnosis of cancer

worms