NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Dogs can detect the presence of cancer through the strong sense of smell enjoyed by dogs in blood samples with a result of up to 97 percent accuracy, a new study shows.
Researchers from the Bioscient Dex study conducted the study, hoping that the results would lead to new approaches to cancer detection.
"Although there is no cure for cancer at this time, early detection provides better hope for survival," said Heather Jonkuera, who led the study.
The team used a special kind of training for four dogs to distinguish between normal blood samples and blood samples from people with lung cancer.
Three dogs identified the cancer samples correctly at 97%, while the fourth dog did not perform the required task due to laziness.
"This work is very exciting because it paves the way for further research on two tracks, both of which can lead to new tools for cancer detection," said Ms. Jonquera.
The first is to use sniffer dogs as a means of detection when examining cancers, and the other is to identify biological compounds detected by dogs and then design tests for cancer detection based on those compounds.
Researchers are now planning a follow-up study to understand the chemical components that dogs smell to detect cancer.