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posted by CoolHand on Monday August 10 2015, @05:35PM   Printer-friendly
from the dogs-the-new-tricorder dept.

Dogs capable of sniffing out cancer have been approved for use in a trial by the NHS (in the UK). The charity Medical Detection Dogs has gained approval from Milton Keynes University Hospital for further trials, after an initial study showed specially trained dogs can detect prostate tumours in urine in 93% of cases.

It is hoped canine testing could help show up inaccuracies in the traditional Prostate-Specific Antigen (PSA) test, used to determine if men need a biopsy. The test has a high "false positive" rate, and many men are unnecessarily referred for the invasive procedure. Iqbal Anjum, a consultant urologist at the hospital, said the study was "an extremely exciting prospect".

He added: "Over the years there have been many anecdotal reports suggesting that dogs may be able to detect cancer based on the tumour's odour. It is assumed that volatile molecules associated with the tumour would be released into the person's urine, making samples easy to collect and test."

http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/aug/08/cancer-detecting-dogs-nhs-trial-milton-keynes-prostate


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 11 2015, @10:08AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 11 2015, @10:08AM (#221194)
    It's not really a bug or "false positive" if the dogs detect other cancers in the process.

    But yes perhaps they should have tested those with bladder cancer to see whether the next stage should only a biopsy of the prostate.

    e.g. if you have kidney/bladder/etc cancer instead of prostate cancer I think you'd still want to go to the next stage of more thorough testing, rather than have the dog signal an "all clear" (coz the trainer said "bad dog, just sniff for prostate cancer not cancers in general").