02 February 2011
London, India
SNIFFING IT OUT: Dogs can pick up chemical compounds specific to bowel cancer in breath and stool samples, a study says According to researchers, the man’s best friend’s sense of smell is 1,000 times more sensitive than a human’s, and as a result it can apparently pick up chemical compounds specific to certain cancers.
In the research, a labrador detected traces of cancer with more than 90% accuracy from samples provided by volunteers. In fact, over several months, researchers in Japan used the labrador to carry out 74 sniff tests. Each test group comprised one sample from a patient with bowel cancer and four control samples from those who were clear. The samples were placed into five boxes.
The labrador, trained to scent chemicals associated with bowel cancer, first sniffed a breath sample from a patient known to have the disease. It then walked along the boxes sitting in front of the sample it believed matched the cancer scent.
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