Cancer Sniffing Dogs

Detecting cancer in its early stages can be difficult, even with the help of the priciest, most advanced medical equipments. However, scientists have discovered that when it comes to finding some forms of this deadly disease, a sensitive well trained doggy nose may work better than the highest technology.

Sounds ridiculous right? In 1989, the British medical journal "The Lancet" printed an anecdotal report about a mutt who developed an obsessive interest in a mole on its owner's leg. Irritated, the owner finally had it checked out and discovered that it was a malignant melanoma. A melanoma that would have eventually killed her... if it were not discovered...

That story, along with many other similar stories, piqued the interest of an American Dermatologist & Skin Cancer Specialist... Dr Armand, from Tallahassee, Florida. Since most melanoma cases go unreported until it's too late to save the patient, he wondered if dogs could be trained to sniff out cancer in its beginning stages.

Dr Armand approached former head of the police canine corps, Duane Pickel, and asked if he knew any dogs who would be up to the challenge. Duane chose his own pet, George, a standard schnauzer.

George was already a highly skilled bomb-sniffing dog. For him to become a cancer-sniffing dog required more rigorous trainings. First, he was taught to sniff out concealed test tubes containing small little bits of malignant melanomas. Then a sample was bandaged to a person, along with many other bandages containing nothing. During dozens of trials, George accumulated over 95% detection rate. Then, finally he was released onto real cancer patients. George managed a 6 out of 7 positive identification rate.

Dogs have highly sensitive nose. They have more than 200million smell-sensing cells in their noses, compared to our human's mere 5million.

They can detect a small packet of drugs in a kitchen full of many other tasty scents (herbs, spices, chicken, beef, cooked meals, uncooked food etc). Or detect a rabbit in a jungle full of scents from different flora and fauna.

Since people and their high-tech equipments have had a lousy track record of finding melanomas in their earliest phases, any help from dogs should be encouraged...it's cheaper, faster and easier too.

Ironically, George who showed the possibilities of such a technique passed away in 2002 from a brain tumor. Maybe he couldn't tell his handlers of his own cancer...

But the work continues... several studies have been conducted, including an attempt to teach dogs to detect bladder cancer by smelling patients' urine. Amazing note: one of the supposedly healthy people in the experiment was found to have a very very early case of bladder cancer when the dog reacted strongly to this guy's supposedly normal urine. He was treated immediately and recovered. He became one of the first few, but not last, cancer patients who owe his life to a dog.















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