Olfactory detection of human bladder cancer by dogs: proof of principle study
Noel McCarthy with Carolyn Willis, Susannah Church, Anthea Bransbury, Martin Church, John Church (Amersham) and Claire Guest, Andrew Cook (Hearing Dogs for Deaf People)
Anecdotal evidence has shown that dogs, with their acute sense of smell, might be able to detect cancers in humans by picking up the odour given off by the cancer cells. In the past 15 years, two letters have been published in the Lancet, seemingly describing dog’s ability to predict the presence of cancer later diagnosed by a doctor. Tumours produce volatile organic compounds, which are released into the atmosphere through, for example, breath and sweat. Some of these volatile organic compounds are likely to have distinctive odours; even when present in minute quantities, they could be detectable by dogs, with their exceptional olfactory acuity.
A clinical motive for investigating the possibility of using dogs to diagnose cancer exists, because interest in volatile compounds as indicators of cancer is growing elsewhere in medicine. The purpose of this study was to test under rigorous experimental conditions, the notion that dogs might be able to detect cancer through their sense of smell.
The objective was to conduct a simple, yet stringent, “proof of principle” study to answer the question, “Can dogs be trained to detect bladder cancer more successfully than would be expected by chance alone?” This was not an attempt to assess or predict the clinical usefulness of this hypothesised capability of dogs.
Publication: 119
