Dogs can sense cancer from blood samples
Research shows that dogs can use their highly developed sense of smell to detect tumors in blood samples. Our four-legged friends do this with an astonishing 97 percent of the. effectiveness. The study could lead to new, non-invasive and inexpensive ways to detect disease.
Dogs have olfactory receptors of 10,000. times more sensitive than humans, making them incredibly sensitive to odors. They can sense even the best-hidden drugs or explosives. In earlier studies, it was shown that dogs can identify rós other diseases, such as Parkinson’s disease. The new research suggests that dogs can also use theirój sense of smell to detect tumorsów.
The results of the experiment with the dogs were presented by scientistów from startup BioScentDx at the 2019 Experimental Biology meeting, whichóre took place last weekend in Orlando. Scientists say that the highly developed odor receptors psów allow them to detect cancers from próbek of blood. What’s more, according to the presentation, dogs recognize tumorór with as much as 97 percent. efficiency, potentially leading to new methods of diagnosing the disease, które would be cheaper and non-invasive.
– There is currently no cure for cancer. Early detection offers the greatest hope for survival – Heather Junqueira said, the heads ofówna researcher at BioScentDx and author of the study. – A highly sensitive test for detecting cancerów could potentially save thousands of lives and change the way theób treatment of the disease – added.
About the fact that dogs can smell cancerór, móhas been around for a long time. However, so far the research has proved largely inconclusive. The new study involved four two-year-old beagle dogs. Junqueira and her colleagues using a form of positive behavioral training (clicker training) taught dogs to rozróżniać normal blood serum from próbek taken from a patientów with malignant lung cancer. Three of the psów accurately identified próbki of lung cancer with 96.7 percent of the. with the effectiveness of. Próbki of healthy blood identified with 97.5 percent. efficiency.
– This work is very exciting because it paves the way for further research along dwóch pathways, with któboth of which may lead to new tools for detecting tumorsów,” said Junqueira. – One uses odor detectionóin by dogs as a screening method for canceróThe second is to determine the relationshipóin biologics, whichóre dogs sense and then design a testóbased on these compoundsów – explained.
Researchers at BioScentDx, the company responsible for the study, hope to use odor detectionóIn by dogs to further develop non-invasive cancer screening techniquesóin and other diseasesób life-threatening. The next step is expected to be research involving the aforementioned beaglóin over breast cancer. Dogs will be taught to sense disease not from próbek of blood, as in this study, and from the breath of.
