Belgian Malinois sniffer dogs are so good they can even detect cancerDogs can raise the alarm over prostate cancer through their incredible sense of smell. Scientists found dogs can tell which men have the disease just by sniffing samples of their urine.
They can pick up on a chemical made in cancerous cells thanks to a sense 100,000 times more powerful than a human's.
Using dogs or developing an ' electronic nose' that can do the job could be more accurate than existing techniques for detecting tumours, the researchers believe
The current blood test, which measures levels of a protein made by the prostate, is unreliable. Two in three men with raised levels of prostate-specific antigen protein (PSA) are found not to have any cancerous cells when they undergo a biopsy.
And one in five with prostate cancer have normal readings. This means fledgling cancers can be missed until they spread to other parts of the body and are much harder to treat.
Researchers at the Hospital Tenon in Paris spent a year training Belgian Malinois shepherd dogs to tell the difference between urine from 33 men with prostate cancer and urine from a group that was cancer-free.
When the dogs identified a cancerous sample, by sitting or running to their trainer, they got a reward. At the end of the training, the dogs correctly identified 63 out of 66 samples as cancerous or non-cancerous.
Dr Anthony Smith, a prostate cancer expert from the American Urological Association, whose annual meeting saw the research presented, said: 'These data suggest prostate cancer tumours may excrete volatile organic compounds that turn up in a patient's urine and that this scent may be specific to prostate cancer.
'If this research holds up, the dogs could be better than PSA testing.'
Henry Scowcroft, of Cancer Research UK, said there were practical reasons why dogs are unlikely to be used to detect the disease.
But he added: 'Once researchers have understood the molecules given off by tumours they might be able to develop better lab tests for the disease in the future.'
Previous research has found that dogs can be schooled to pick up breast and lung cancer.
source: dailymail
Posts
