As part of a National Institutes of Health study, Lucy, a cross between a Labrador retriever and an Irish water spaniel, was trained to use her nose to detect bladder, prostate, and kidney cancer. With seven years of training, Lucy could detect who has cancer and who doesn’t with more than 95% accuracy. She is now part of one of the largest clinical trials of canine cancer detection with the National Health Service, to see if she can use her powerful nose to sniff out prostate cancer in 3,000 urine samples with other Medical Detection Dogs.
The trial, a collaboration between Milton Keynes University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and the charity Medical Detection Dogs, was approved after earlier research showed that the specially trained dogs detected prostate tumors in urine in 93% of cases.
Medical Detection Dogs not only trains the dogs to sniff out cancer, it also trains medical alert dogs to aid people with health issues. According to The Daily Mail, the charity has taught 22 dogs to recognize when a diabetic’s blood sugar gets low, allowing the dogs to alert them when this occurs. The dogs are also able to aid narcoleptics by working out when an attack of sleep paralysis is about to start — and may soon be able to teach dogs to tell when someone with a severe allergy is about to have an allergic episode.
Claire Guest, CEO of Medical Detection Dogs, recalls how her fox red Labrador, Daisy, caught her breast cancer in August 2009. Guest, now cancer-free, is one of the leaders in the field of disease-detecting canines. She shared her experience with CNN:
“She kept staring at me and lunging into my chest. It led me to find a lump. The tumor was deep in my breast. Had it not been drawn to my attention by Daisy, I’m told my prognosis would have been very poor.”
Daisy has detected more than 550 cases; her success rate is an incredible 93%. Daisy, who can sniff out a cancer in less than a minute, has been awarded the prestigious Blue Cross medal, the highest honor bestowed on heroic pets.
A dog’s nose has 300 million sensors, while a human’s nose has just 5 million. Dogs have an additional organ in their nasal cavity, known as Jacobson’s organ, which humans are devoid of. This double smelling system allows trained dogs to smell cancer’s unique odors.
Iqbal Anjum, a consultant urologist at Milton Keynes University Hospital, noted that the study is an extremely exciting prospect.
“Over the years there have been many anecdotal reports suggesting that dogs may be able to detect cancer based on the tumor’s odor. It is assumed that volatile molecules associated with the tumor would be released into the person’s urine, making samples easy to collect and test.”
Our pet dogs can be trained to detect diseases in people—and they’re amazingly good at it. https://t.co/uZ3yIIp7T6
— National Geographic (@NatGeo) March 19, 2016
The Prostate-Specific Antigen test (PSA), is currently used to detect the disease; however, the procedure is known to have a high false positive rate (75%). Scientists say cancer-sniffing dogs may be able to help reveal inaccuracies in the PSA test, and eventually help in the development of far superior cancer screening services that will mimic a dog’s nose. Rowena Fletcher, head of research & development at Milton Keynes University Hospital, told Reuters:
“Ultimately we hope to use the information that the dogs produce to actually develop an electronic nose. So eventually you could have a machine that sits on your consultant’s desk, you’d put the urine sample in it and it would tell you if it was positive or negative. That would be the ultimate aim.”
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