The Pet Tree House - Where Pets Are Family Too : Do You Believe that Some Dogs Can Detect Certain Cancers? The Pet Tree House - Where Pets Are Family Too : Do You Believe that Some Dogs Can Detect Certain Cancers?

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Do You Believe that Some Dogs Can Detect Certain Cancers?


We all know that there are drug sniffing dogs, and bomb sniffing dogs…but do you believe that there are dogs that can sniff out certain cancers?

The National Geographic News says, that ordinary household dogs with only a few weeks of basic "puppy training" learned to accurately distinguish between breath samples of lung- and breast-cancer patients and thy subjects. Please read their story, Dogs Smell Cancer in Patients' Breath, Study Shows.

According to the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) says, that some dogs may be able to detect colon cancer.

A recent report in the medical journal Gut suggests that dogs may be able to help doctors detect colon cancer. Researchers in Fukuoka, Japan, found that one Labrador Retriever was able to sniff out the disease with 99 percent specificity, reports MedPageToday.com.

The canine was able to detect the cancer after smelling stool from patients who had been diagnosed with the disease. The animal was able to pick out the cancerous samples, even when placed side-by-side with healthy fecal matter.

"The study represents the first step towards the development of an early detection system using odor materials from patients with colorectal cancer" the researchers wrote in their report.

Though this latest development may be good news for cancer researchers, the scientists warned that it will take time to train dogs to smell out the disease, and that all breeds of canine may not be able to detect the cancer.

According to the news source, dogs have already shown the potential to smell out melanoma as well as ovarian, breast, lung and bladder cancer.



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