Thursday, June 3, 2010

A recent French study has established that dogs can detect prostate cancer by sniffing human urine. It has been previously proven that dogs are able to sense the presence of volatile organic compounds emitted by cancerous cells. Last Tuesday, a panel of researchers from Tenon Hospital in Paris recounted at a meeting of the American Urological Association that they hope this study will help to identify men most at risk for cancer.

Jean-Nicolas Cornu, MD, directed the study, which consisted of 66 samples of urine. Half of the samples were from men with prostate cancer. The study was conducted in three training phases: cancer recognition, cancer distinction and cancer selection. In the first phase, the dog was trained to identify cancerous urine. In the second phase, the dog was trained to differentiate cancer urine from noncancerous urine. In the third phase, the dog was presented with five urine samples and directed to choose the one sample that was cancer urine.

"The dogs are certainly recognizing the odor of a molecule that is produced by cancer cells," said Cornu.

The dog was correct approximately 95% of the time, correctly identifying 63 samples. Two researchers spent over a year training a Belgian Malinois shepherd, a breed commonly used as a working dog. The doctors have yet to identify what chemical dogs can actually detect.

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