Dogs have good nose for cancer

DOGS could be used to screen women for breast cancer after British scientists were given permission to investigate whether the animals can accurately detect the disease by sniffing a patient's breath.

They have been found to be highly accurate in detecting several other types of cancer. Some can identify prostate cancer from urine samples.

A charity is now embarking on a trial to establish if dogs can accurately detect breast cancer from breath.

The researchers believe that if the technique is proven to work, it could "revolutionise" how doctors think about the diagnosis of all cancers.

Six dogs from the Medical Detection Dogs charity in Buckinghamshire will be trained. The best four will be used to test samples from 1500 women.

If the technique is accurate, it could result in women at a high risk being screened simply by breathing into a tube, which would then be sniffed by a specially trained dog. Earlier studies suggested dogs can detect bowel and lung cancer in breath samples.

Dr Claire Guest, a behavioural psychologist and founder of the charity, said her dog alerted her to her own breast cancer when Daisy, a fox red labrador, persisted in jumping at Guest's chest, and after medical tests a deep-seated early tumour was found.

Daisy has worked on 6000 urine samples and was 93% reliable in detecting prostate cancer – more reliable than blood tests. – The Daily Telegraph