Trained dogs can sniff out cancer in dogs

Cancer remains one of the leading causes of death in both humans and pets. Research estimates that 30 to 50 percent of dogs will develop cancer during their lifetime. Of particular danger is hemangiosarcoma, an aggressive form of cancer that affects the cells of blood vessels. The disease is often discovered only at a late stage, when an apparently healthy dog ​​suddenly loses consciousness, which is why it is often called the “silent killer.”

To date, there are no reliable methods or tools for the early diagnosis of this disease, and the prognosis after its detection is usually unfavorable. To find a possible solution, researchers from the School of Veterinary Medicine studied whether hemangiosarcoma has a specific odor or pattern of volatile organic compounds that dogs are able to detect. The results of this study were published in The Veterinary Journal.

The study involved five biological scent detection dogs that had previously been trained to detect scent markers of various diseases, including chronic wasting disease, post-traumatic stress disorder, ovarian cancer and pancreatic cancer. The animals underwent double-blind tests with blood serum samples from three groups: dogs with confirmed hemangiosarcoma, dogs with other non-cancer diseases (control group) and completely healthy dogs. Each dog tested 12 specially selected sets of samples, with seven tests performed for each set. It is important to note that none of the samples presented have previously been used in the training phase.

The experiments used olfactometers – high-tech devices equipped with a small infrared laser beam passing along the top of the device. When the dog interrupts this beam, the system detects that it is studying the sample. If the animal stays in the beam area for enough time and the pattern is correct, an audible signal is heard, after which the dog understands that it can approach and receive a reward. Overall, across all tests, the dogs correctly recognized hemangiosarcoma specimens approximately 70 percent of the time. This figure is comparable to results obtained in studies where dogs are used to detect cancer in humans – a method that is already considered more proven and widespread.