Dogs Have Potential To Sniff Out Prostate Cancer
Published on June 4, 2010 by Jennifer White · 2 CommentsThis week a team of researchers from Tenon Hospital in Paris reported at a San Francisco meeting of the American Urological Association that dogs can be trained to detect the characteristic odour of unique chemicals released into urine by prostate tumours. Man’s best friend may be able to find a new way to identify men who are most at risk from the cancer. If developed, the test might be more effective than the PSA test now used because it would have fewer false positives.
Researchers all over the world have already been studying the use of dogs to detect cancers of the breast, lung and bladder. Studies have found that tumours release characteristic chemicals that can be identified by the exquisitely sensitive canine nose. Lung cancer cells, for example, can release such chemicals into the air of the lungs, and they can then be detected on the victim’s breath.
The Los Angeles Times has reported that Dr. Jean-Nicolas Cornu of Tenon and his colleagues trained a Belgian Malinois (that has already been used for detecting bombs and in other cancer tests) to identify urine from patients with confirmed prostate cancer, then to differentiate those samples from urine from healthy subjects.
They used one urine sample from a prostate cancer victim and four samples from healthy people, asking the dog to choose the correct one. In 66 tests, the dog was correct a staggering 63 times. There were three false positives and no false negatives. That is, the dog correctly identified all the specimens from prostate cancer patients, but misidentified three from healthy men.
The whole training process took about a year, Cornu said, and the team is already training other dogs. The researchers are now attempting to identify what specific chemicals the dog is reacting to in hopes of developing an “electronic nose” that wouldn’t require treats and toilet breaks.
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Tags: Social Issues
There is also a group working on this, and bowel cancer in the UK.
They are called Cancer and Bi-Detection Dogs. Have a look at http://www.cancerdogs.org.uk for more information
How can we train more of these dogs? I for one have an exceptional puppy with a fantastic nose. He will soon be training to be arson dog, but ONLY because I could find no training programme for cancer / bio-detection. That would have been my first choice, far and away.