Smelling cancer!

I've never heard of that but I'm going to hang around to see if anyone else has. Hope it's nothing!

I haven't heard of this either but you should talk with your doctors and express your concerns. You know your body and it would be worth your peace of mind to see if your doctors have thoughts on this. Your senses may be alerting you to something or there may be a reason (other than cancer) that you are noticing this smell. Some sort of tissue issue or infection, totally unrelated.

After the first lumpectomy, I told my oncologist about that and he had said that in all his years he had heard of 3 patients that their dogs alerted them to this, but I was the first person! I'll be seeing him after radiation and shall also be seeing an organization (TheSecondOpinion) who are a group of specialists that me meet with accepted patients after reviewing their medical records. I've always had a sensitive snifter, in fact smelled electrical wires arcing in wall when no one knew that and could smell a gas leak for over a year where the plumber came out twice in the year and finally found a hairline crack in the gas line under the house. Strange, but true!

trixie1313 - I have a pretty good nose myself (but nothing like yours!)......I have always had really terrible eyesight and attribute my bloodhound tendencies to be an over compensation. Sounds like you could be on to something and I believe we have to know our own bodies and give all of that information to our doctors so they can help. Also, prompted by your message I fiddled around on the internet a bit and dogs can often smell cancer (and other diseases and conditions) and so can some people! Good idea to trust your instincts.........always!!

Several months before I was diagnosed with bilateral breast cancer in Sept. 2015, I not only felt a swelling near the armpit of my left breast, but I kept smelling what I'd say was close to B.O. in that armpit. I shower every day, but couldn't get rid of that smell. After breast surgery which disclosed different cancers n each breast, the old sweat smell stopped. The right breast which had estrogen related cancer didn't produce this smell. I'd mentioned this peculiar condition to my primary care doctor before my mammogram, but he didn't seem concerned. However, I knew it indicated that something was up and I'm glad I trusted my own instincts and made the mammogram appointment. My advice: Trust your instincts. You know your body.

Suki - it's a relief that there is someone else with this ability. Thank you for sharing!

I had that too! For at least a year my right armpit always had a bad smell. I would scrub it like crazy in the shower and could never get rid of the smell. In March of 2018 I was diagnosed with breast cancer in the right breast, close to the armpit! I went thru chemo, surgery & radiation; the smell is gone!

Support4me - thank you for sharing - wow, finally I'm not crazy! I spoke to my breast cancer support group today and no one had gone through this. I'll be speaking to my radiation oncologist tomorrow to ask about this as the smell is starting to creep back. The joke in my house is that I could be the canary in the coal mine due to my super snifter!

Interesting! I agree with others, trust your instincts

First time I noticed a smell was when I was in Hospital been told I had Brain Mets, no one else could smell it & I was a bit Gaga at the time ! It was with me for a couple of days but wasn’t offensive it was quite a sweet smell. It went until today for a few seconds but it’s frightened me that something ‘s not right ?