Dogs Can Detect Cancer in Urine Says Study

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Dr. Donal Bodenner along with a colleague at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences has conducted a study that could change the way thyroid cancer is detected.  

According to Youth Health magazine, there have been several cancer-related studies which reveal that dogs have the ability to smell cancer, like melanoma or breast cancer. Dr. Bodenner wanted to try the theories out with thyroid cancer using Frankie, a German Shepard mix.

The Toronto Sun reports that Frankie can detect if a patient has thyroid cancer or not. According to BBC News, the dog correctly diagnosed 30 out of 34 cases, leading to a success rate of 88.2%. Out of the 34 cases, Frankie correctly diagnosed 15 patients with thyroid cancer and 19 patients as cancer-free, adds the Toronto Sun.  

BBC News states that Frankie was trained to smell the cancer cells which release "volatile organic compounds" into the body. During the study, Frankie was given urine samples to smell from each of the 34 patients.  

He was taught to lie down if the patient had thyroid cancer, and if the patient did not have thyroid cancer, Frankie was taught to turn away from the samples.

According to several sites, the current way to detect thyroid cancer can be seen as painful and uncomfortable. In addition, Youth Health magazine states that the results from these tests often yield a large margin of error. As a result, patients must undergo further testing. 

According to the Toronto Sun, Dr. Bodener says, "Current diagnostic procedures for thyroid cancer often yield uncertain results leading to recurrent medical procedures and a large number of thyroid surgeries performed unnecessarily. Scent-trained canines could be used by physicians to detect the presence of thyroid cancer at an early stage and to avoid surgery when unwarranted." 

During the Endocrine Society's 97th annual meeting in San Diego, Dr. Boenner's study was presented. It was also published by the journal EurekAlert, states Immortal News.

BBC News reports that there are some who are against the use of live dogs in the medical office. Dr. Emma Smith, from Cancer Research UK, shares these sentiments. 

She states, "Although there's some evidence that some trained dogs can sniff out the smelly molecules given off by cancers, there have been mixed results on how accurate they are and it's not really practical to think about using dogs on a wide scale to detect the disease." 

Dr. Smith suggests studying the noses of real dogs to further develop the technology used in e-nose, which can simulate the nose of a real dog.  

The doctor adds, "But carrying out lab tests to understand what the dogs are smelling might help to inform the development of 'electronic noses' to detect the same molecules, which could lead to better diagnostic tests in the future."