File this one under, "What the heck!?"
It turns out that dogs may be much more than just man's best friend. New research suggests that canines can detect bowel cancer, even in its early stages, with a remarkable degree of accuracy.
A study published on Monday in the journal Gut found that a specially trained Labrador retriever was able to identify the presence of cancer in breath and stool samples 95 and 98 per cent of the time, respectively.
The findings help to build on an emerging area of research that is focused on the relationshipbetween dogs and their ability to sniff out cancer.
Previous studies have found that canines are able to detect cancer in humans by smelling their breath, urine or other samples. Although they do not yet understand the "why" behind it, researchers believe that dogs, with their extremely powerful sense of smell, are able to identify the scent of chemical compounds typically associated with cancer.
In the recent study, researchers in Japan used breath and stool samples from 48 people with confirmed bowel cancer and 258 healthy volunteers. A trained Labrador retriever correctly identified cancerous samples in 33 out of 36 breath tests and 37 out of 38 stool tests. The highest detection rates were with samples taken from individuals with early stages of the disease.
The idea of early detection for bowel cancer is intriguing to doctors and scientists because many people avoid getting screened for the disease because of the unpleasant nature of colonoscopies. Making it easier to be screened for the disease could potentially help in the quest toward early detection and treatment.
