According to a new study, ants can be used to diagnose cancer in humans thanks to their sensitive olfactory systems. He started in . Now, Piqueret and his team have gone a step further and are able to detect ants and tumors in mice. Piqueret and his team used a technique called xenograft (foreign tissue grafting) to implant human breast cancer tissue into mice and let the tumor grow. They then collected urine samples from both cancerous and sick mice. “During training, we collected the ants in a round area and placed food as a reward next to the urine we received from cancer mice,” says Piqueret. As the ants found the food given as the reward, they associated the reward with the cancerous cells and learned to recognize it. “Cells are like factories, they need food to live and produce waste. Cancerous cells also produce a waste that can be detected in the odor.” “Not yet,” says Piqureet. There are so many different variables. However, the scientist is determined to do more research on this subject and believes that ants can be an extremely useful tool in diagnosis and does not require much training. "Another advantage is that ants live in colonies and share information with each other," Piqueret said. He notes that if they are trained, they can spread this knowledge to others.