Mangalore: The main function of our earwax is to keep the ear canal clean and smooth. But did you know that earwax can also detect diseases in your body?
Cancer is a deadly disease, and many people only know about it when it reaches the final stages. Doctors say that if cancer is detected at an early stage, treatment can be started sooner. A study conducted by the Federal University of Goiás (UFG), a Brazilian public institution, has found that earwax-based tests can help detect the presence of cancer in patients. The research shows the potential for early detection of cancer through a painless, low-cost and highly accurate method.
Benefits of earwax testing.
“In terms of oncology, it helps improve people’s quality of life by preventing cancer. It is a simple, cheap, practical and painless method,” says study coordinator Nelson Antoniosi Filho.
For these researchers, earwax, which accumulates in the ear canal, has enormous value. When analyzed in the laboratory, it helps identify changes in a person’s health.
What does earwax look like
If our body is healthy, the chemical composition of earwax looks one way. If the same health is not right, if something is wrong, perhaps indicating a disease, the composition of the earwax changes.
So today, earwax is like a fingerprint of our health status, helping to detect whether we are healthy or not, says Antoniosi.
Doctor’s advice
How did this research begin?
The research began with the detection of diabetes and the detection of drug and pesticide toxicity through the analysis of earwax. The method was later adapted to veterinary medicine, allowing it to detect intoxication and cancer in dogs.
The project has been underway for ten years in partnership with the Amaral Carvalho Hospital in Jaú (São Paulo), a cancer treatment center. Over time, the results proved promising and the test began to detect cancer in humans.
Key insights
In 1971, Nicholas L. Petrakis, a professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, discovered that Caucasian, African-American and German women in the USA with “wet earwax” were almost four times more likely to die from breast cancer than Japanese and Taiwanese women with “dry earwax”.
Helpful for identifying pre-cancerous stages
In 2025, a new discovery further excited scientists, suggesting that earwax experiments could identify pre-cancerous stages, enabling earlier and less painful treatment for patients. This advance reinforces the importance of early diagnosis, as the earlier a cancer is detected, the higher the chances of a cure.
During the trial, samples from 751 volunteers were analyzed, 531 of whom had already undergone cancer treatment. Of these, the test returned positive results for the disease. Of the 220 who had no prior diagnosis, only five had abnormal substances found, and all five were later confirmed to have cancer through conventional tests.
What can be detected with an ear swab
Did you know that Covid-19 is sometimes detected through earwax? It can also be used to determine whether a person has type 1 or type 2 diabetes. Early research suggests that it can be used to tell whether someone has a certain type of heart disease through their earwax.