Study Shows Robotic Nose More Sensitive to Odor Than Cancer-Detecting Dogs

A study reveals that dogs have the ability to smell prostate cancer which in turn, could be used on 'robotic noses' in order to sniff out the illness via a technique called 'machine olfaction.'

According to a report from Independent news site, in an initial study, British and American researchers trained dogs to "detect aggressive prostate cancer" from urine samples of people.

Dogs have excessively sensitive sense of smell. They can also pick up VOCs or volatile organic compounds produced during many cancers' early stages.

The researchers then used the data to develop an "artificial neural network" that could identify the cancer-specific chemicals that these animals could smell.

Detecting Odor of Prostate Cancer in Urine Samples

The hope in this study is that the performance of dogs can ultimately be copied and used in technology like in a mobile app or smartphone.

Specifically, a seven-year-old Vizsla and four-year-old Labrador were trained to detect and identify the smell of prostate cancer in urine samples collected from those who have the disease. It includes Gleason 9 prostate cancer, a deadly tumor, and would benefit patients if detected earlier.

Experts from the Medical Detection dogs in Milton Keynes conducted this research, together with colleagues from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Johns Hopkins University in the United States, supported by the US-based Prostate Cancer Foundation.

In their work, the study authors specified that "diagnosis by canine olfaction" through the use of dogs to detect cancer by odor has been presented to be both "particular and sensitive."

While dogs themselves, the study investigators said, "are impractical as accessible diagnostic sensors," machine olfaction for the detection of cancer is testable.

How Sniffing Out Cancer Occurs

As earlier mentioned, dogs have an excessively sensitive sense of smell and can collect VOCs released from many cancers' early stages, as seen on the BBC Earth video below. Such cancers include ovarian, colorectal and lung cancers.

According to scientific research, pooches can separate between tissue and blood samples that both healthy people and ovarian cancer patients donated by collecting "minute quantities of VOCs."

In addition, studies have also found that dogs can sniff out prostate cancer in urine of a man, as well as the lung and breast forms of the illness from compounds in the breath of a patient.

The research also specified that if a dog gets to detect this on its owner, it may then try to alert him by "paying him more attention, sniffing him, or 'comforting' him by" by gently licking his feet or hands, or probably laying beside him without any reason at all.

Meanwhile, if an individual gets to notice his dog as regularly acting unusually when around him, it may worthy to look out for other symptoms of cancer like fatigue, weight loss and pain, among others.

Dogs Trained

For this research, the study investigators trained two dogs namely Florin and Midas to detect aggressive prostate cancer taken from urine samples.

Both trainers and dogs were double-blinded on which particular samples were taken from cancer patients against otherwise healthy patients.

Both Florin and Midas were able to detect aggressive cancers swiftly and accurately from urine samples, which, according to the said report, "discriminating this" against urine samples from patients with other forms of prostate diseases.

The researchers presented 71-percent sensitivity, defined as the capability to identify truly positive cases, and about 76-percent specificity, the ability to determine negative cases accurately.

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