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TOBY is following cancer’s chemical trail
A urine sample, a mass spectrometer, and an algorithm: TOBY is betting on a less invasive route to disease detection. Its early prostate results show both the appeal and the difficult business of telling a useful signal from a false alarm.
SpotitEarly
SpotitEarly is a healthtech company building an accessible, non-invasive early cancer detection service that combines trained scent-detection beagles with an AI platform to analyze volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in a person's breath. Users collect a breath sample at home and mail it to the company's lab, where beagles screen for cancer-linked odors and SpotitEarly's proprietary LUCID bio-AI platform digitizes and interprets the dogs' behavioral signals. A double-blind clinical study of 1,400 people, published in Nature's Scientific Reports, reported 94% sensitivity and specificity across the four most common cancers - breast, colorectal, lung, and prostate. Founded in Israel and now launching in the U.S., the company aims to make routine multi-cancer pre-screening affordable, at roughly $250 for a single test.