What Everyone Ought to Know about Dogs Who Can Detect Cancer!

27 comments Dec 29, 2014by Denise Lessard

Can dogs really detect cancer ? The answer is YES.


Researchers have discovered that your four-legged friend cannot only smell cancer, but also be more accurate than the most advanced laboratories when trying to detect certain cancers.


When you think about detection dogs, you automatically associate them with illegal drugs and explosives. Right? Well now, you can add smelling cancer to your list!


Not only can a trained dog smell cancer, but your own dog at home can too. Many experiences testify that this has been done. We’ll get back to these experiences a little later in the article.


When you think about it, your dog has many advantages in warning you if he detects cancer. After all, if something goes wrong with you, something will go wrong for him too. He counts on you to bring him food and shelter, so he wants to make sure you always stay by his side.


The power of a dog’s nose

Dogs love to use their nose to smell food, people, animals and even wounds and cuts. Has your dog ever smelled a cut on you? Maybe you’ve personally experienced it. If you have a cut on your arm, your dog is able to smell it, even through your sleeve. They can smell the change and they will point it out to you.


A dog’s nose is already well-known to be an expert at smelling things. This is because they can smell in parts per trillion. This means less than a drop of blood in 20 gigantic sized swimming pools. That is 50,000 times more than a human. Isn’t that amazing?


Us humans love to use our eyes and we’re pretty good at it. When we enter a room, first thing we do is walk in and see the room. For dogs, they walk in a room and smell it. When you see a cat, they smell a cat; when you see a cut, they smell a cut. That is why dogs are so good at detecting drugs, explosives and missing people. Fortunately, now researchers, many other people and pet owners know they can detect cancer. Dogs are so good at it that they can detect it at a very early stage. Even at stage zero. Cancer has a smell. Even oncologists say that cancer has a smell that can be scented around stage 3 or 4 through a patient’s breath. If a human can smell it, it makes a lot of sense that a dog can do too, but at a much earlier stage.

 

 

How dogs pick up the scent

You know dogs have a powerful nose and can smell a large quantity of things, but how can they actually sniff cancer? Just how can they do it?


What’s impressive is that dogs can smell cancer from urine and breathe samples only.


A study was made with five dogs. Two portuguese water dogs and three labradors. They were trained to detect breast and lung cancer over a three-week period. The training consisted in smelling breathe samples only. 169 cancer patients and healthy volunteers were mixed into a group. 86 people out of 169 had cancer. They were asked to give breathe samples. The dogs each had to smell the samples individually.


When the dogs smelled cancer cells, they would lie or sit down next to the cancerous sample. The dogs got a reward when they detected cancerous scents. What were the results of the study? All dogs had accurately spotted out the cancers from stage zero to stage four in the mixed group.


Dogs who are trained to detect cancer are trained just like the dogs who learn to detect explosives and drugs. Trainers will give the dog a well-deserved reward after having targeted the right odour. The training might be similar, but the similarities stop here. While drugs and bombs can have one particular odour, cancer scent is a combination of thousands of organic particles that are unique to each human being. So before a dog can sense the smell of cancer “in general”, it takes a lot of samples of the common scent in order to become really good at it. In order to detect cancer, the dogs have to be trained to detect healthy breath as well. So, no need to say that this becomes what we can call very specific training.


What about your own dog? Can he really smell cancer even if he isn’t trained for it? Some people testify by their own experiences that yes, it has been done and it has saved their lives.


 

 

Some testimonials

Below you will read two short and touching experiences found in two online articles about two women who both got an early cancer detected by their dog. The following excerpts can be read thoroughly on theguardian.com and dailymail.co.uk.


About Emilie Clark and her dog Mia:

“One evening in November 2011, I was at my computer when Mia leapt on to my lap and nuzzled into the flesh at the top of my left breast. She closed her eyes and licked furiously. That frightened me because it's what she does when I have a bruise or cut.

 

I pushed her gently away but she fixed her eyes on mine and stared at me intently, as she does when she's alerting me to something. I was uneasy now. Mia seemed certain there was a problem with the area at the top of my breast. I couldn't distinguish anything – my breasts are naturally lumpy – so it was difficult. All evening Mia attempted to leap on to my lap and tend to the area of skin where she perceived a problem. The following morning, I visited my GP with a sense of dread. I asked for an ultrasound or a mammogram. I didn't start the consultation by telling him that my dog had alerted me to the possible abnormality – I was aware it might sound far-fetched, but when he was dismissive, saying it was unlikely I had breast cancer because I was only 24, I explained. (...)


None of the oncologists I met during my ordeal was sceptical about Mia's role in diagnosing my cancer – they had heard it before. There's a charity called Medical Detection Dogs that trains dogs to sniff out cancer, and its work is endorsed by Cancer Research UK. Scientists are researching how dogs possess this diagnostic ability so that humans can harness it. Fortunately, my cancer hadn't spread but it will be another 16 months of scans before doctors grant me the all clear. Meanwhile, I'm rebuilding my life. No matter what life serves up, the bond between Mia and me will always be incredibly strong.”


About Dr. Claire Guest and her dog Daisy:

“As Dr Guest, now 50, recalls: 'Daisy seemed to be pawing at my chest. She bumped against my body repeatedly - I pushed her away, but she nuzzled against me again, clearly upset.


'She pushed me so hard that it bruised me. Her behaviour was totally out of character - she was normally such a happy dog, who would never hesitate to race after the other dogs.'


'I felt the tender area where she'd pushed me, and over the next few days I detected the tiniest lump.'


A few days later she went to her GP who referred her to a consultant. He thought it was a cyst, but said he would do a mammogram to be sure. 'He was correct - the bump was a perfectly harmless cyst,' says Claire. 'But further in the breast tissue was a deep-seated cancer.' It was caught very early and she had a lumpectomy and some lymph nodes removed, as well as six months of radiotherapy.


'I was 46, and the specialist told me that by the time a lump had become noticeable, this cancer would already have spread and my prognosis could have been very different.


'Just as I was doubting the future of dogs being used to detect cancer, my own pet labrador saved my life.'”


 

How dogs help cancer researchers

Dogs just like Daisy, found in the above experience, helped detect not only her owner’s cancer, but over 500 other cases like this one after being trained to do so. Trained detection dogs not only help provide second line screening for cancers that are now still hard to diagnose reliably, but they also help in the development of electronic systems, that are also called “electronic noses or e-noses”, that will help in the detection of early cancers. All of this will be possible in an non-invasive way and at a very low-cost.


The electronic nose will be able to pick up molecules created by the cancer cells with considerable accuracy. More research needs to be done on the electronic nose, but once it’s ready, this technology will open a lot of doors to detecting many types of cancers.


Nowadays, cancer is a disease that is undoubtedly spreading and growing. You certainly want to do everything that you can to reduce your chances of getting cancer, or at least, be able to detect it at stage zero. You and I are blessed to have trained dogs who can really help make a difference and save many lives. Many organizations do some beautiful work to help advance resarch: dogsdetectcancer.org and medicaldetectiondogs.org are only two of them. Maybe one day we’ll be lucky enough to have a detection dog in every doctor’s office.


What do you think? Comment below.

 

Sources:


 

 


About the author

Denise Lessard
Denise Lessard

HOMEOPATH, NATUROPATH, REFLEXOLOGIST, TRADITIONAL CHINESE MEDICINE THERAPIST

Denyse Lessard is deemed as the “mother” of Zumalka, which was established more than ten years ago to provide easily accessible natural products for pet wellness worldwide.

Besides being a trained alternative medicine therapist, Denyse also has expertise in homeopathy, naturopathy and iridology, reflexology, as well as Chinese medicine. She is a long-standing member of the Professional Union of Homeopaths of Quebec, as well as the Association of Naturopaths and Naturotherapists of Quebec.

Denyse’s philosophy as regards pet wellness is not just about only dealing with disease and illness when they get in the picture, but keeping animals in ideal health each and every day.

Find out more about Denyse when you click HERE.


27 comments


  • Dixie Stevens June 28, 2019 at 10:11 am

    I just found out about dogs detecting cancer. In reading the articles I see that when the dog detected something it was in just on spot. But if you have a dog that licks your legs,feet,arms,hands just any place that you show skin day in and day out constantly. Does that mean that I have something wrong with my whole body or is my dog just weird? Any thoughts.


  • Marcelina Pablo March 29, 2019 at 2:55 pm

    Thanks! It’s really good to have an extra idea about dog


  • Tanya Campilonga March 29, 2019 at 3:08 pm

    I have a 7 year old chihuahua who is now my registered service dog. I’ve had her since the second she was born so she has always been very keen on my feelings and emotions. She would always lay her head on my abdomen area where my ovaries are located. Little did I know why she was doing it but my right ovary was covered with so many cysts that the ovary couldn’t be seen on a ultrasound. After having that one removed she was still laying on my abdomen and I was still in a lot of pain. Another ultrasound confirmed a large cyst on my left ovary. They removed it and said it was the size of a balloon inflated. After pathology on both sides my right side came back as non cancerous but my left side was a cancerous cyst. Now I have a 13 month old Pitsky and they both lay on the area where my uterus is which I was told almost 3 years ago that there are cysts on that as well. With them both doing that it really makes me wonder if those cysts are cancerous as well. Only time will tell when I’m able to afford to go back to my doctor.


  • Angela S. March 29, 2019 at 3:10 pm

    Our Dog Tango And Australian Shepherd Mix Literally Diagnosed My Boyfriend’s Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia. She Continued To Lick And Lick And Lick And Lick Spot Every Night We Go To Bed And When He Would Get Her To Stop She Would Turn Around And Look Me Until I Got Her Stop She Wouldn’t Turn Turn To Him And Look That Same Spot Almost Silly. Raw A Week And A Half Later After Her Doing This Every Night We Went To The Doctor We Did Find Some Lumps And He Was Very Quickly Within 5 Days Diagnosed With a very aggressive Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia And It’s Been Being Treated Accordingly. I Truly Feel Very Blessed That Our Untrained Dog Was Trying To Let Us Know Something Was Wrong, literally before he had any symptoms that we could notice. I feel that we owe her the world. In the she was not looking us and she would get so tied up next to his neck to sleep she would literally sit and stare at me for hours and in her eyes you knew you could tell that she had something she wanted to tell us and it was important but she just didn’t know how. I know many people are skeptical, but trust me since you started treatment she doesn’t do it anymore the first time he had his long length hospital stay I noticed she quit licking me all together at night she would just like clothes cuz she knew I was upset. Dogs are wonderful creatures a man’s best friend and Lifesavers thank you to the smart smart animals they can save people’s lives and they don’t even know how important they are.


  • Wendy Kranich April 4, 2019 at 3:00 pm

    One day I noticed my Jack Russell poking at my Labs abdomen ,then he barked at me and poked again. My JR can be neurotic so I sent himt to his bed. He did it over and over then one day my Lab collapsed in the yard. Then at the vet we found out the dog had bladder cancer. And the Lab got weaker so I had the vet put him to sleep. A couple months later I realized my JRussell was trying to tell me the Lab was sick with cancer.


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