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Medical detection dogs sniff out cancer

Medical detection dogs sniff out cancer

That dogs have a good sense of smell is well known, that this smell allows them to detect certain diseases is an emerging theme. Dogs are already used to detect diabetes or seizures, now dogs are also being trained to detect cancer. Dr. Claire Guest, Medical Detection Dogs chief executive, is training dogs to recognize cancer from a breath sample. When she was training dogs to detect other types of cancer, one of the dogs warned her and it turned out she had breast cancer. "It was very deep and had my dog Daisy not warned me, I was told it could have been very serious and life-threatening because by the time I felt the lump it would have been very advanced."

Anecdotal evidence that dogs can sniff out cancer has been around for decades. In 2004, Dr. Church and colleges published the results of the first trail on dogs detecting cancer in BMJ, which indicated that dogs can sniff out bladder cancer from urine. Later studies showed that dogs can also detect lung and bowel cancer. Now studies into prostate and breast cancer detection by dogs are ongoing.

These studies are supported by Medical Detection Dogs, a charity that works with researchers, NHS Trusts and universities to train specialist dogs to detect the odour of human disease that was initiated in response to the 2004 bladder cancer study. Next to sniffing out cancer, medical alert dogs can also recognize blood sugar levels outside the normal range and warn their owners or get help. Addisonian crisis, pain seizures and narcolepsy can also be detected. Besides sniffing out diseases, alert dogs are also used to detect bed bugs.

In addition to helping detect cancer in an early stage, the research investigating if dogs can detect the odour of cancer can be otherwise useful. "There is a huge amount of potential for this work, not only in finding out where cancer is present but also in the development of an electronic nose," said Dr. Guest. "If we can find out how the dog is doing it, we can make machines in the future that could screen our breath and our urine for cancer volatiles."

Sources: BBC, Medical Detection Dogs and the British Medical Journal


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