Dogs Have The Ability To Sniff Cancer With 98% Accuracy, Research Reveals

New research has found that dogs are able to detect cancer just by sniffing. In the study, dogs have a 98% accuracy of smelling prostate cancer by sniffing men’s urine.

The study was conducted in Milan by the Department of Urology at the Humanitas Clinical and Research Centre and was supported by Medical Detection Dogs, a charity founded in Buckinghamshire.

The study involved two German shepherds trained to sniff medical conditions, specifically by sniffing the urine of 900 participants—360 of them have prostate cancer while 540 didn’t. One dog had an accuracy of 98.7 percent and the other had 97.6 percent.

Dr. Claire Guest, co-founder of Medical Detection Dogs described the results of the study as “spectacular.” According to her, the results only added evidence that “dogs have the ability to detect human cancer.”

Dogs are known to possess the ability of detecting medical conditions. Many dogs have already been used to detect conditions such as epilepsy, diabetes, and anxiety disorders. Despite the fact that they have this “sixth sense” and can pick up a diluted scent (one to a thousand parts), Guest said that there is a "reluctance to embrace this tested, time-old technology.”

Prostate cancer is the most common form of cancer in British men and about 40,000 new cases are reported each year. The most commonly used tests to detect the disease are physical examination, biopsy, and blood tests called PSA test. PSA test is not reliable enough for screening prostate cancer.

The research was based on several previous works and raises the possibility that dogs can be used to help doctors detect human conditions like cancer and infectious illnesses. The study was published in the Journal of Urology. Authors admitted that there is still more work to be done to establish how effective a dog’s senses are when it comes to identifying signs of prostate cancer on a daily basis.

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