When a surgeon is cutting out a cancer does it have a distinctive smell (good, bad or indifferent) or does it smell the rest of the body? What the heck does the inside of the body smell like anyway when opened up and operated on?
Where’s the TMI? Many will be disappointed when they open this thread.
I have not done any DIY cancer surgery yet so I do not have a good answer to that part but I have butchered some animals and I would think a human body would not smell much different.
Speaking from an animal standpoint–“bad” smells usually come from infections. Open body cavities that aren’t infected have a strong “earthy-minerally” smell–but I think it’d be misleading to say it smells bad. The intestines and bowels are a different matter–once you cut into those it’s hard telling what you’ll come across. 
As for cancer specifically–no experience with that here, sorry. My “educated” guess would be no–they’re just mutated cells, not festering, so no horrible infectious smell would be involved.
I’m sure a real doc will come along soon to set us all straight.
What about glandular cancers?
Probably not to humans, but there have been anecdotal reports of pets (dogs, mostly) sniffing out tumors; IIRC at least one showing up in News of the Weird.
Actually, there is some evidence that skin cancer has a particular smell, although I don’t think it is detectable to humans. A number of years ago a cancer scholar got some media attention because he trained a schnauzer to sniff moles and indicate whether they were malignant or benign. The dog was accurate.
My GF, who owns several horses, had noticed an odd smell when she was around one of them in particular. There are various smells associated with horses and barns, but this one was decidedly different.
However, we couldn’t track it down.
Several weeks later. . .
The person who owns the barn called her to say that she (the owner) had noticed a growth on this horse’s (Smokey) penis, and that she might want to take a look for herself.
(Horses’ penes stay sheathed unless they are ready to use it, although they do sporadically drop out briefly for–to me, anyway–*unknown reasons.)
Well, I went out and met the vet that evening. He dropped (out of the sheath) while we were there, at which point the vet, when she saw the orange-sized peduncular tumor that also dropped–immediately said, “[Hammer Boy], that’s cancer.” Also when it dropped, it was accompanied by a MUCH stronger (and fouler) version of that same smell we had been noticing for weeks. She said then, “Yeah, that’s some really foul smelling stuff.”
While I can’t say for a medical fact that it was the cancerous tissue causing the odor, it was definitely associated with it for some reason in this case.
*I say “unknown” because most adult male horses are geldings, so it’s not as though they have much reason to get excited when they smell the aroma of a nearby lady horse.
There was definitely a case reported about a dog sniffing out a skin cancer. There are now scientists looking into using dogs to diagnose cancer. Sorry, can’t find a cite.
Cite? As close as “dog sniffing tumor” on Google.
Bang! This may be the Schnauzer to which Cranky referred.
A relative of mine died of breast cancer that was (by her choice) untreated by conventional medicine. Towards the end, she had a large, open wound where the cancer had “eaten” it’s way through her body. According to my mother (who was one of the people attending her at the end) there was a strong, unpleasant odor from the site. I would assume that it was mostly from the dying tissue.
Also, when I was a teen I had a fairly severe bought of mono, during which I did not eat for several days and spiked high fevers. My mother confessed after the fact that she had been concerned because my room smelled to her (she had been a nursing student) like a cancer ward. I assume it had something to do with odors caused by my body consuming itself, which would be a factor during any long illness.
Actually… one of my dad’s best friend’s dad was in the process of inventing some sort of medical device that could literally “smell” cancer cells. I havent talked to him directly about it, and I don’t really have much more information on it. Maybe there’s some information you can find on the internet, I’m too lazy to look. I don’t know how far my dad’s friend has come on this project, but he started working on it 5 or 6 years go.
According to my older relatives in Arkansas, cancer does have a smell. They mention it in some of the stories they tell each other, not as a point of the story but as a passing comment. As in, “Well, Shirely came by that very afternoon, we hadn’t seen her in a long while. She had been feeling poorly. I knew she had cancer, you could smell it on her.” then every one of them nod and look as if they know exactly what she means. These people know what infections smell like, diabetes is common in my family. They say cancer doesn’t smell the same. I believe the cases with the smell were quite advanced.