I'm in 2 (at least!) minds about this one..... Will be interested in any follow-up



Study finds dogs can smell cancer

Sarah Boseley, health editor
Friday September 24, 2004

The Guardian
Dogs can sniff out cancer, a study shows today, resolving several years of anecdote and speculation by doctors on the question.

In the definitive study, reported in the British Medical Journal, dogs were trained to identify bladder cancer by sniffing urine.

In 1989, doctors first wrote to the rival publication, the Lancet, telling of a border collie/doberman cross that saved the life of its owner by sniffing so persistently at a mole on her leg (even through trousers) that the 44-year-old woman became suspicious. The mole was removed in hospital and found to be a melanoma, caught in its early stages.

In 2001, a second letter told of Parker the labrador, similarly obsessed with what was thought to be a patch of eczema on a 66-year-old man's thigh. Again, the man became suspicious, went to doctors and was found to have a skin cancer, which was removed.

In both cases, doctors speculated that cancerous tissue might have a particular smell which dogs might detect even though humans could not. The BMJ paper is a scientific study to test the hypothesis.

"Tumours produce volatile organic compounds which are released into the atmosphere through, for example, breath and sweat," writes Carolyn Willis, a senior research scientist from the department of dermatology at Amersham hospital in Buckinghamshire, and colleagues. "Some of these compounds are likely to have distinctive odours; even when present in minute quantities, they could be detectable by dogs, with their exceptional olfactory acuity."

Six dogs of a variety of breeds were trained for seven months to identify the smell of urine from patients with bladder cancer. Their final test was to select the one cancer sample from seven. They chose the correct sample, by lying down next to it, on 22 out of 54 occasions, a success rate of 41%, compared with the 14% to be expected purely by chance. The researchers say the results "should provide a benchmark against which future studies can be compared, and it is to be hoped that our approach to training may assist others engaged in similar work".

Tim Cole, professor of medical statistics at the Institute of Child Health in London, writes that the most intriguing finding was that the dogs consistently identified a particular urine sample of someone thought to be cancer-free. "The consultant was sufficiently impressed by the dogs' performance to test the patient again and found a kidney carcinoma."

Catrin is posting something about this on the IH site Catherine. I think it's on the thread addressed to "Me" which started off warning about a certain religion... sigh...

I would never have looked at that thread had you not mentioned it - eeek!!!

I won't pretend to understand most of it so can't comment on the relevance of "quantum holograms" in this research!! Having said that, in quantum physics it is known that energy can exist without matter and I do suspect that quantum effects have a much greater importance in eg medicine than is allowed for. But I'll leave that to a discussion of complementary therapies rather than weird religions! (Catherine's narrow-minded comment for the day!)

Catherine

Given the explanation of sweat/odour I could well believe this. When my Aunt was dying of cancer it was my mother that nursed her and for a time I lived with another Aunt. I distinctly remember the times when I visited my mother at the dying aunt's house because of the smell, when I went upsatirs and past my aunt's room. It was really strange and I've never smelt anything like it before or since. Will check out the thread KAS mentioned next time I visit the DG.