Dogs detect cancer

Dogs never cease to amaze me. We hear of incredible stories of how dogs save the lives of humans and how they have an unexplainable sense of knowing something is wrong. Almost 10yrs ago I was watching a show called "Miracle Pets". It's a show about the bond between human and pet. In one episode, a lady and her yellow lab were sitting on the couch. She was doing crossword puzzles when all of a sudden, the lab bit her breast. She yelled from the painful act. "He's never done that before," she explained. Two weeks later she had her annual physical, and was told she had breast cancer. It was in the early stages and immediately began treatments. I remember her saying on the show, "....he (the dog) was trying to tell me something was wrong. He saved my life..." Truly amazing that dogs could even detect something like that.

In further studies, researchers have tried to examine a dogs' ability to detect cancer. From the British Medical Journal, a study was performed with 6 dogs, all of which had no scent training before. Over a 7 month period, the dogs were trained to smell urine samples from bladder cancer patients, to healthy individuals and individuals with other types of diseases. The dogs consisted of 3 spaniels, 1 labrador, 1 mixed breed and 1 papillion.

The dogs were given a set of 7 urine samples and had to identify the cancerous one by lying down in front of it. All samples were new to the dogs. The dogs were able to detect the cancer urine 22 out of 54 times. A 41% chance compared to a 14% chances if the dogs were to randomly pick a sample. Perhaps the most interesting finding to this study is all 6 dogs identified a sample as cancerous from one of the healthy patients. Doctors followed up on the patient several weeks after and discovered the patient did have cancer.

Could this mean that dogs are able to detect cancer even before machines can? It is definitely something I believe in. Is it 100%...no...but if it gives us a better chance or gives us another tool to fight this deadly disease, we all would benefit from this. Our dogs are not only our beloved friends, but could one day be our saviours too.