Dogs Can Sniff Out Cancer In Blood With Nearly 97% Accuracy, Study Shows
There are many reasons added to the list of why dogs are simply the best, including:
– Their loyalty
– They do not hold complaints
-They’ll always need you
-They’re always there to comfort you
-They love you unconditionally
-They are always happy to see you!
-They will always protect you
– They are good listeners
– They are smart
– You cannot stay mad at them
– They’re always happy
– They’re selfless
– They dedicate their lives to pleasing, loving, and keeping their owners happy.
However, the team of researchers, recently found that a dog’s nose may become the latest frontier in cancer detection, and they presented this finding at the annual meeting for the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology in Orlando, Florida in 2019.
According to the researchers, dogs can use their superb sense of smell to pick up on cancerous blood samples.
The statistics also show that a dog’s sense of smell is up to 10,000 times more accurate than a human. Because of that, they’re capable of picking up on odors that people cannot even perceive. The results of the labs show that the trained dogs were able to pick out cancerous blood samples from patients with close to a 97 percent accuracy.
This ability of the dogs is used for cancer detection, which is a low-cost and non-invasive form of cancer screening.
The leader of the study, Heather Junqueira says:
“This work is very exciting because it paves the way for further research along two paths, both of which could lead to new cancer-detection tools. One is using canine scent detection as a screening method for cancers, and the other would be to determine the biologic compounds the dogs detect and then design cancer-screening tests based on those compounds.”
She and her team worked at BioScentDx teaching four beagles how to distinguish between healthy blood samples and those with malignant lung cancer found in the patients. Three of the four pups did cooperate and were able to identify the samples at an accuracy of 96.7 percent.
They are now testing whether dogs can smell cancer in the breath condensate of breast cancer patients. In the breast cancer study, participants were able to donate samples of their breath for screening, and that is detected by the cancer-detecting dogs.
According to Heather, these dogs detect pre-cancerous cells, meaning those at stage 0-1. They have 26 dogs, including general cancer dogs and some others trained in specific tumor types. They are trained to detect breast and lung cancer, and soon there will be dogs for colorectal, prostate, and melanoma cancer.
The advantage of these tests could be more viability and affordability than traditional screening methods. They are offering testing for $50 on their website and while this method of detection is “still in training”, Heather also recommends to not stop doing a preventative visit to your medical doctor.
Early detection of this terrible disease is of great importance, as in many cases early detection can offer the best hopes of managing it.
By doing these new tests thousands of lives could be potentially saved and that will change the way this disease is treated.
So, for those who have a dog friend at home, they need to give him full attention, because dogs do so much for people, and ask for so little in return.
Having in mind that the dogs’ sensitivity is too much developed, perhaps they can also be used to detect other diseases? Everyone who possesses a dog knows from his/her own experience how he has an innate ability to sense when something is wrong.
Sources:
1) Can Sniff Out Cancer In Blood With Nearly 97% Accuracy, Study Shows
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/04/190408114304.htm
2) Accuracy of Canine Scent Detection of Non–Small Cell Lung Cancer in Blood Serum
https://jaoa.org/article.aspx?articleid=2736410
3) BioScentDx
https://www.bioscentdx.com/getscreened
4) American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
http://www.asbmb.org/
5) Experimental Biology
https://experimentalbiology.org/2019/home.aspx