r/self • u/Calm-Cucumber-252 • 5d ago

I can smell when people have cancer

Believe it or not, I can smell when someone has cancer. It is the most pungent smell ever, and only gets worse the stronger it is. As a child, my grandpa started smelling funny, and after a while he was diagnosed with cancer. The smell got stronger as his cancer did, until he passed away. I thought nothing of it until my Nan on the other side started smelling the same way, and it got stronger until she eventually got diagnosed and passed away too. That’s when I started thinking wait maybe I can smell cancer (or maybe it’s just a coincidence). I started smelling the smell at varying strengths for people in public, and always kinda thought in the back of my head oh man I think they’ve got cancer. However, it wasn’t until my OTHER granddad got cancer and had to stay in hospital and at 17 I got to go visit him in a hospice specifically for cancer patients. I could hardly walk in the building. There it was again - that SMELL! Do people secrete certain chemicals when they have cancer? I have a strong sense of smell so I could possibly pick up on it. It’s definitely not when they’re going through chemo, because I can smell it on people who haven’t started chemo yet. I am genuinely going crazy trying to find an answer. This smell is horrendous and I just don’t understand why I can smell it when nobody else seemingly can??

Edit: on a long car journey rn, feeling a bit car sick so won’t be replying to any more comments for a while. This isn’t an April fools, I’ll repost it tomorrow if u really don’t believe! Will be contacting more research places too :)

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u/TheBossAlbatross 5d ago

Don’t stop. There was a lady who could smell Alzheimer’s I think. They didn’t believe her at first and then finally they ran a test and confirmed she could. It could be a huuuuge cancer research breakthrough. Don’t stop trying.

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u/imanutshell 4d ago edited 4d ago

It was Parkinson’s, but you’re right that they didn’t believe her and eventually went on to confirm it! OP should for sure press further on this and use this case to cite precedent and hopefully be taken at least seriously enough to test it further!

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u/HolyFritata 4d ago

if i remember correctly, there are associations with parkinson and abnormalities in gut microbiome. Being able to smell parkinson is imo a clear sign to explore that connection further. ...however this might reveal a cause and enable prevention instead of intervention... which is sadly financially not lucrative enough for a company to invest a lot of money into research in that direction. We'll have to wait for governments picking up on it and funding research.

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u/BudandCoyote 1d ago

Depends on the country. Any place with universal healthcare would invest in prevention because it will save the government money, as treatment obviously gets more expensive the more advanced the cancer is. That's why the UK has cervical screenings every three years until you're sixty (or slightly after), mammograms every three years between fifty and seventy, and bowel cancer screenings every two years between 54 and 74. Offering those to the entire population ends up costing less because it can catch cancer early enough to stop it before it starts.

Dogs have been able to be trained to smell illnesses for a very long time - personally I think there should be a 'cancer sniffer' in every GP's office, checking all non-allergic people, whatever it is they've actually gone in for.

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u/HolyFritata 1d ago

yes, but governments alone don't have enough money for extensive research. The issue with dogs able to smell/ sense illnesses is they can't be trained to do it, they are born with it and they get trained on basic service dog behaviour and signaling it a special way. Unfortunately you can't just get a litter of puppies and train them to smell cancer, one of them might be able to (...if even one) but not all. At least that's the issue with epilepsy warning dogs. 

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u/BudandCoyote 1d ago

https://news.cancerresearchuk.org/2009/02/03/can-dogs-detect-the-smell-of-cancer/

Dogs can absolutely be trained to detect cancer, just like they can be trained to detect any other smell.

I think the issue with epilepsy warnings is that there's no way to isolate what the dogs are smelling/sensing (it may not all be smell, it might be changes in breathing, heart rhythm etc or even a combination of these factors), so while they could potentially be trained, it would be a lot harder and would almost certainly have to involve inducing epileptic fits in people to teach the dogs what to look for (which is unethical and obviously a non-starter). Even then it's possible different people will have different warning signs, meaning a dog would have to be matched with an individual, and then basically trained 'in the field' to spot when they're going to have a fit.

Money is always an issue in government, that's true - but in places with a social healthcare system, all you need is to show that the investment will pay off with lower spending in the long term. In any place with decent government healthcare a huge amount is invested in prevention because it's better than cure in terms of spending. That's why the UK spends so much money on getting people to quit smoking, even though tax on cigarettes is a money earner. Ultimately, they save more by people quitting and not needing treatment for all the various health issues smoking causes than they gain in tax.

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u/HolyFritata 1d ago

oh good to know, however i still don't think this will be broadly implemented since it is quite expensice to train multiple dogs for multiple healthcare facilitations.

And yes i agree on that, however at the begining of research you can't prove that it will save money, and governments only have a limited research fund, so once this is used up for the year, you have to find private funding which follows capitalistic interests. I live in Austria and we have a lot of prevention, however investing further in it will not pay off that fast.(free psychotherapy -> healthy minds make healthy decisions leading to less heart attacks & other coronary diseases, alcoholism, drug abuse, diabetes type 2,...) They would pay double (prevention and intervention) for a few living generations until they eventually die and you remain with a prevention based health system and finally are able to save money. 

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u/BudandCoyote 1d ago

It definitely gets more complicated the further steps you are from a 'direct' result.

The one that drives me mad in the UK is that our dentistry isn't free at point of use, but dental health is linked directly to heart health!

If we just made all dental care free (besides the cosmetic kind) then people would get their regular check ups, and overall heart health would improve! It's also self-defeating to charge for the 'smaller' stuff, because a small problem that a person is avoiding getting checked because they won't/can't pay then becomes a major problem, and once it's a major problem that actually does become a 'free' NHS treatment (in quotes, because tax), and ultimately costs more than preventing it in the first place would have!

But 'catching cancer early costs less' is a pretty simple and basic one, which is why we already have various screening programs. I think adding a 'dog sniffing' one to the pile should be on the table!

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u/HolyFritata 1d ago

I'm with you on that! 

Maybe they fear liability issues with dogs as diagnostic tools...There must be some reason against the use.

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u/BudandCoyote 1d ago

You'd have to take allergies into account, I suppose. Or maybe there's an underlying 'unscientific' feel to it that prevents anyone pushing to bring dogs into diagnosis.

Maybe it'll happen one day. Personally, I'd love my doctor's visits to be punctuated with petting the cancer sniffing dog... though maybe not if they then alert!

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u/grakattackbackpack 3d ago

She got 1 person wrong during the blind study- turns out she just smelled it long before their symptoms started.  

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u/ReplyOk6720 5d ago

And like the above said a doctoral student or med student would have availability to make this pet project

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u/iDoomfistDVA 3d ago

She even smelled one in the control group, they laughed and later this guy was diagnosed(:

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u/Adventurous_Rock_918 3d ago

Yay! I’m looking for this comment. I’m pretty sure I’ve watched it too!!

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u/GoatedObeseUserLOL 1d ago

Cynically, could be where OP got the idea for his story. I mean it would be an odd thing to invent in your head, a cancer ward smelling awful, when most people can't smell a difference, but people do invent odd things in their heads, so much its probably not that odd really. Of course the OP could just be pulling a fast one on us.