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Three beagles successfully showed they are capable of identifying lung cancer by scent, a first step in identifying specific biomarkers for the disease. Researchers say the dogs' abilities may lead to development of effective, safe and inexpensive means for mass cancer screening.
After eight weeks of training, the beagles--chosen for their superior olfactory receptor genes--were able to distinguish between blood serum samples taken from patients with malignant lung cancer and healthy controls with 97% accuracy. The double-blind study is published in the July edition of The Journal of the American Osteopathic Association.
Non-small cell lung cancer was the target in this study. That's the most common type of lung cancer, and does occur in smokers. (Though small cell squamous carcinoma is more commonly associated with tobacco use.) Still, this is pretty cool. The dogs' accuracy is impressive. It's been known for some time that dogs can be trained to detect biomarkers of other malignancies, including bladder cancer and melanoma. So this finding definitely makes....uh, scents.
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2019-06-cancer-sniffing-dogs-accurate-lung-cancer.html
After eight weeks of training, the beagles--chosen for their superior olfactory receptor genes--were able to distinguish between blood serum samples taken from patients with malignant lung cancer and healthy controls with 97% accuracy. The double-blind study is published in the July edition of The Journal of the American Osteopathic Association.
Non-small cell lung cancer was the target in this study. That's the most common type of lung cancer, and does occur in smokers. (Though small cell squamous carcinoma is more commonly associated with tobacco use.) Still, this is pretty cool. The dogs' accuracy is impressive. It's been known for some time that dogs can be trained to detect biomarkers of other malignancies, including bladder cancer and melanoma. So this finding definitely makes....uh, scents.
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2019-06-cancer-sniffing-dogs-accurate-lung-cancer.html
