A Dog's Sense of Smell can be Trained to Detect Cancer in People

Going to the dogs

Is early detection of cancer going to the dogs? You be the judge. Scientists have discovered that a dog's sense of smell can be trained to detect cancer in people. A study conducted by a California cancer research foundation and the Polish Academy of Sciences reveals that a dog's extraordinary scenting ability can distinguish between the exhaled breath of people with breast and lung cancers from that of healthy individuals. What's more, the dogs can detect both early and late stage lung and breast cancers -- and they do it all with amazing accuracy.

This isn't the first time scientists have put canines' legendary sense of smell to use. Previously, dogs were trained to detect skin cancer by sniffing skin lesions and they also have been able to detect bladder cancers by scent, too. But this is the first study to test whether dogs can detect cancer by sniffing the exhaled breath of cancer patients.

The study used a food reward to train five ordinary household dogs to distinguish -- by smell -- the exhaled breath of 55 lung and 31 breast cancer patients from that of 83 healthy people. The exhaled breath of both patients and healthy individuals were captured in special tubes. The dogs would either sit or lie down in front of a sample if cancer was present. The training was completed in just a few weeks. Afterwards, researchers tested the dogs' ability to distinguish between the exhaled breath of cancer patients from that of healthy individuals. The dogs were able to correctly detect breast and lung cancers between 88 and 97 percent of the time.

It is thought that the dogs pick up on the scent of different metabolic waste products that cancer cells produce. These waste products are not emitted by normal cells, and a dog's sense of smell is so sensitive that it is able to detect these biochemical markers even in the early stages of cancer.

This research offers us yet another reason to consider dogs as man's best friend.
 
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What is...the urinary tract?

The kidneys, ureters, bladder, and urethra make up the urinary tract system. Bacterial infections can affect any part of the system. The urinary tract is designed to filter out waste and excess water from the blood and expel from the body as urine. Waste products and fluid are collected in the kidneys and then transported via a slender tube called the ureter to the bladder where it collects until it is excreted through the urethra.

Yours in good health,
Amanda Ross
Editorial Director
Nutrition & Healing