[inglor_cz]

That might be just an imprecise formulation by the journalist.

Smelling tuberculosis seems plausible to me, it is a disease of the lungs.

General cancer probably no, but I have repeatedly read comments by oncologists that sarcoma, specifically, has a distinct smell.

[zeristor]

Makes me realise there is no real way to notate a smell.

How do people even get a handle on what a smell is, and how personal an experience is it.

[jganetsk]

This is a great observation! Indeed, most languages have very few words for smells.

- https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2015/11/the-voca... - https://www.wired.com/2014/11/whats-up-with-that-smells-lang...

[kseifried]

Aroma and smell training kits exist for people into wine, beer and so on: https://aromaster.com/

[zeristor]

Yes, but is there a notation, like there is for music?

There's a whole pyramid scheme for perfumery, of course.

[genman]

Notes are for frequency and there are marks for intensity, but you still have to write down what instrument is used.

In general in the vocabulary of smells you try first to understand the instrument (certain fruit, manure, sea, etc) and then the intensity of it.

I'm not very familiar how the intensity and variations are described but I presume that it is not as formal as in the case of music.

But it has no help if you can't smell it (the frequency is out of the hearing limit) or you can't recognize the instrument from the noise.

[sethammons]

My sister worked in urology and could smell bladder cancer