研究人员发明检测膀胱癌的新仪器.docVIP

Researchers from the University of Liverpool and University of the West of England, (UWE Bristol), have built a device that can read?odours（气味）?in urine to help diagnose patients with early signs of bladder cancer. There are currently no reliable biomarkers to screen patients for bladder cancer in the same way that there are for breast and?cervical（子宫颈的）?cancers. Previous research has suggested that a particular odour in the urine could be detected by dogs trained to recognise the scent, indicating that methods of diagnoses could be based on the smell of certain gases. ? The team have now built a device, called ODOREADER ? that contains a sensor which responds to chemicals in gas emitted from urine. The device, constructed in the laboratories at UWE Bristols Institute of Biosensor Technology, analyses this gas and produces a profile of the chemicals in urine that can be read by scientists to diagnose the presence of cancer cells in the bladder. ? Professor Chris Probert, from the University of Liverpools Institute of Translational Medicine, explains: Each year approximately 10,000 people in the UK are diagnosed with bladder cancer. It is a disease that, if caught early, can be treated effectively, but unfortunately we do not have any early screening methods other than diagnosis through urine tests at the stage when it starts to become a problem. ? The device works by inserting a bottle containing the urine sample into the device. About 30 minutes later the ODOREADER? is capable of showing the diagnosis on the computer screen if the sample derives from a patient with bladder cancer. ? Professor Norman Ratcliffe, from the Institute of Biosensor Technology at UWE Bristol, said: It is thought that dogs can smell cancer, but this is obviously not a practical way for hospitals to diagnose the disease. Taking this principle, however, we have developed a device that can give us a profile of the odour in urine. It reads the gases that chemicals in the urine can give off w