Ants have the ability to sniff out cancer in humans, study reveals

研究發現螞蟻能嗅出人類癌症

【摘要2022.3.21.一.自由】◎陳成良

Ants have the ability to sniff out cancerous cells in humans, a new study has discovered, suggesting they could be used for cancer diagnosis in future.

一項新研究發現，螞蟻能嗅出人體內的癌細胞，這表明螞蟻可用於未來對癌症的診斷。

Researchers from the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) discovered that ant species Formica fusca has a well developed sense of smell.

法國國家科學研究中心（CNRS）的研究人員發現，「黑山蟻」（學名：Formica fusca ）這種螞蟻品種，嗅覺非常發達。

It was able to differentiate cancerous cells from healthy cells in humans, thanks to their sense of smell, limited trials revealed. But more clinical tests must be carried out before they could be used in clinical settings like hospitals, the team said.

有限的實驗顯示，這種螞蟻的嗅覺超強，能夠將人體的癌細胞與健康細胞區分開來。但是該研究團隊表示，還需要進行更多臨床測試，才能將黑山蟻用於醫院等臨床環境中。

They suggest that in future, ants could turn out to be better at dogs when it comes to locating cancerous cells in humans.

他們員指出，未來在識別人體癌細胞方面，螞蟻可能會比狗做得更出色。

新聞辭典

differentiate：動詞，區分。例句：We do not differentiate between our workers on the basis of their background or ethnic origin.（我們不會因為背景或是種族區分員工。）

thanks to：片語，指幸虧、由於。例句：It was thanks to your timely help that I accomplished the task on time.（多虧你及時幫忙，我按時完成了任務。）