Dogs as Cancer Detectors

Barbara2 · 07-31-2010, 11:58 AM

We have talked about this before on this board...

Dogs as Cancer Detectors
By Maggie Koerth for MSN Health & Fitness

Man's real best friend may be his best friend's nose. Dogs' sense of smell is incredibly powerful, but it wasn't until recently that scientists began siccing that sense on cancerous tumors. Researchers wondered if canines could be trained to smell the chemical difference between patients with cancer and those without. So far, the results have been promising. Studies show test dogs can accurately pick out patients with lung, breast, ovarian and bladder cancers. In some cases, the pups have hit accuracy rates as high as 97 percent.

But don't book an appointment with Dr. Beagle just yet. The detection method is still in its early stages of research. To really prove that dog detection can work, researchers will need to show that dogs can identify afflicted patients who haven't yet been diagnosed by traditional means, as opposed to using previously diagnosed cancer patients and healthy controls. Critics argue the dogs might not be smelling cancer, but instead some olfactory evidence of lifestyle differences between healthy people, and those who are already addressing (and worrying about) an illness.

Jackie07 · 08-02-2010, 01:26 AM

Well, however it is, I know my 'Puppy' found me in 1993 - three years after my brain surgery. She simply wondered into my front entrance where I had left some grains for the birds.

I thought she was a 'puppy' (because she loved the milk I brought her), turned out she's a toy poodle barely 4.5 lbs (eventually grew to 6 lb and the vet told us to hold back the BBQ ribs...

She'd accompanied me through another brain surgery (Gamma-knife radiosurgery in 2001) and two breast cancer surgeries and chemotherapy (2003, 2007)

When she turned 'stiff' on our kitchen floor one winter day (early January 2008) after my last chemotherapy stopped prematurely because of lowered MUGA score, I just knew that God had sent her to comfort me during all my illnesses and treatment.

One of my bosses (the best one I've ever had) commented when he saw the picture of 'Puppy' that it had to be the type of dog I would have (he was putting out every staff's pet picture in a display case and let the students to match the pet with the owner) Because I'd been dressed rather nice (was given some very nice/expensive outfit by a local physician's wife when I was working at another library - she thought all of her daughter's clothes would fit me. She was right.) and everyone thought hubby is good-looking and a nice guy, he thought I have 'taste'...

Another one of my friends, a waitress in the restaurant where I worked as a cashier for over three years, accurately assessed the situation. She said it's because I did not 'discriminate'. I was never picky in choosing things or people. Consequently I always get the best...

Yes, God always gives (and takes) the best.

[Truthfully, I've been wondering if Puppy's flea collar had contributed (at least partially) to my brain tumor recurrence and two bouts of breast cancer...

]

Barbara2 · 08-02-2010, 08:45 PM

Hi, Jackie,
I really doubt very much that the collar had anything to do with your recurrance of brain cancer and then breast cancer. I guess there is no way to really know. There are so many reasons why people get cancer, I just want to believe it was not the collar!

I, like you, am a dog lover, as is my husband. I believe our schnauzer knew of my cancer before I did. She sniffed the lump area on my breast for no good reason one night before I knew of my cancer diagnosis, but I was aware of the lump the doctor was keeping an eye on. At the time, I had a feeling that she (the dog) was aware of something in that location that was different, somehow. Unfortunatly, she was right.

I hope you have been blessed with another animal friend. The quote on our August calendar (dog calendar, of course!) next to the picture of a dog, says: "No other animal loves you more than they love themselves."

Chelee · 08-03-2010, 02:54 AM

Barbara, I absolutely believe beyond a shadow of a doubt that dogs can smell cancer! I have a toy poodle and a Dogue de Bordeaux. (Mastiff) Both my dogs prior to my dx kept sniffing my right leg and upper right side. Drove me crazy! They never had done that before...it was constant...every chance they got. I was always telling them to quit. Never the left side...always the right.

Then later I find out I had bc on the right side...and a bone mass in right femur. Coincidence...no...I just don't believe that. Also I'd like to note...after I had surgery to remove mass in breast the dogs both quit sniffing me. To this day if they start sniffing around me I start to panic...I really believe they can smell it. I watched a show on animal planet that showed a standard poodle that could detect cancer...he was trained for it...but I'm sure it came pretty natural to him.

Chelee

das · 08-03-2010, 11:57 AM

Hi, these researchers in Sweden trained dogs to distinguish ovarian carcinomas from healthy control tissue samples. They found that: Using our training method, we taught a dog to distinguish different histopathological types and grades of ovarian carcinomas, including borderline tumors, from healthy control samples. Double-blind tests showed 100% sensitivity and 97.5% specificity. Moreover, the odor of ovarian carcinomas seems to differ from those of other gynecological malignances such cervical, endometrial, and vulvar carcinomas. Our study strongly suggests that the most common ovarian carcinomas are characterized by a single specific odor.
Source: Integrative Cancer Therapies 2008 Jun;7(2):76-80. Epub 2008 May 27.

Possibly this has been done with breast cancer as well!

Sherryg683 · 08-03-2010, 09:59 PM

My shitzu did the same thing, he started sniffing my right breast before I was diagnosed. Now this is a dog that is very anti-social and doesn't like to be petted and for him to suddenly be in my lap sniffing my breast was weird. Of course it was my right breast with cancer. About a year after treatment, about a month before I was to have my scans, he started sniffing my right breast again. I was so upset , I just knew the cancer had returned and he was detecting it. Thank God his nose was not correct, may I was just dribbling food on my shirt or something...sherry