Sniffer dogs can smell cancer

A team of researchers have discovered some exciting laboratory news regarding lung cancer detection.

According to a study published in the European Respiratory Journal, sniffer dogs have been found to reliably detect lung cancer.

Exhaled breath has long been considered an ideal way of identifying the presence of lung cancer through volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that are linked to the presence of the disease, but laboratory tests have been unreliable.

The new study sought to ascertain whether sniffer dogs could recognise VOC in breath samples.

Tests showed that the dogs successfully identified 71 lung cancer cases out of a possible 100 and detected that 372 out of a possible 400 did not have lung cancer.

"Our results confirm the presence of a stable marker for lung cancer. This is a big step forward in the diagnosis of lung cancer, but we still need to precisely identify the compounds observed in the exhaled breath of patients. It is unfortunate that dogs cannot communicate the biochemistry of the scent of cancer," said author of the study Thorsten Walles, from Schillerhoehe Hospital.