Cancer-Detecting Dogs To Undergo Trial

Animals at specialist charity will undergo evaluation at Milton Keynes hospital after proving 93% effective in detecting odour of prostate tumours

Sniffing out cancer is a capability that dogs can exhibit. Some dogs have been selected for doing it in a trial by the NHS, according to theguardian.

Hence, the charity Medical Detection Dogs has got the green signal from the Milton Keynes University Hospital to proceed with trials, after the first study showed that specially trained dogs can identify prostate tumours in urine in 93% of cases.

There is hope that canine sniffing can counteract some "inaccuracies" in the Prostate-Specific Antigen (PSA) test that is used to determine whether or not men need to do biopsies. The test has a high "false positive" rate, and many men are unnecessarily referred for the invasive procedure.

Iqbal Anjum, a consultant urologist at the hospital, said the study was "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 tumour's odour. It is assumed that volatile molecules associated with the tumour would be released into the person's urine, making samples easy to collect and test," he added.

It is expected to be a three-year-long that will give nine dogs urine samples from 3,000 hospital patients. The results of their "analysis" will then be compared with traditional testing to check the accuracy of the "untraditional approach", according to rt.

It was in 2008 that the concept of the Medical Detection Dogs was co-founded by Dr Claire Guest. She was the training director of the first study programme, and was training dogs to identify cancer in 2003.

Her personal experience of her dog Daisy led her to realize her breast cancer in 2009. Daisy had started to prod Dr Guest in the chest, making her realize that it was bruised and that she had a benign tumour near the surface, as well as a "deeper malign growth" that she quickly diagnosed.

That was her "impetus to really believe this could be life-changing for people". She added: "Britain has one of the worst rates of early cancer detection in Europe. The NHS needs to be bolder about introducing new innovative methods to detect cancer in its early stages.

"Our dogs have higher rates of reliability than most of the existing tests. We know their sense of smell is extraordinary. They can detect parts per trillion - that's the equivalent of one drop of blood in two Olympic-sized swimming pools.

"We should not be turning our backs on these highly sensitive bio-detectors just because they have furry coats."

Once the trials is over, there are two charities, the Graham Fulford Charitable Trust and the Prostate Cancer Support Group, who are ready to led out the diagnostic service.

Gary Steele, who founded the Prostate Cancer Support Group, said his team were "so impressed" by the initial trials into using dogs to detect cancer, saying the PSA test left "a great deal of room for improvement".

He added: "If they can prove in this study that dogs are reliable at detecting cancer, then we will have the evidence we need to offer sample screening by dogs as an optional test in our cancer clinic.

"We should not miss this opportunity to save thousands of lives."