Dogs can Detect Prostate Cancer by Smelling Human Urine: Study

Dogs can detect prostate cancer by sniffing human urine, according to a study.

Cancer screenings and diagnostic tests are not only expensive but take long to determine the growth of cancer cells, disease progression and recurrence. Italian researchers discovered that dogs can  catch markers of prostate cancer in urine samples with 98 percent accuracy.

 For the study, urine samples of 677 people were tested of whom 320 were diagnosed with moderate to serious prostate cancer, reports the HealthDay News.

It was observed that cancerous tumors produced chemicals known as volatile organic compounds that get absorbed in the air emitting an odor that can only be detected by dogs' hypersensitive olfactory abilities. The dogs were rewarded with treats each time they were able to spot the chemicals from the urine samples. After training for five days in a week the dogs were retested with different set of urine samples and once again correctly distinguished samples of prostate cancer patients.

"With our study, we have demonstrated that the use of dogs might represent in the future a real clinical opportunity if used together with common diagnostic tools. Dogs have an incredible memory and might simply be picking up and recalling individual scents" from the training samples," said Gianluigi Taverna, study author and researcher with Humanitas Research Hospital in Milan, reports the HealthDay News.

The accuracy rates in gauging the presence of prostate cancer were 98.9 and 97.3 percent in both sets of samples, respectively.

The authors believe their findings add evidence to the benefits of employing canine in cancer detection and screening.

"Standardized method is reproducible, low cost and non-invasive for the patients. The potential of using a dog for recognizing prostate cancer might reduce unnecessary prostate biopsies and pinpoint patients at high risk for prostate cancer," Taverna said.

According to the 2010 data by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, nearly 196,038 men were diagnosed with prostate cancer and 28,560 succumbed to the disease.

 Pet dogs and other animals help curb stress, depression and anxiety in patients who undergone chemotherapy. Previous study suggests the pet therapy reduces the mortality risk and improves treatment response in pediatric cancer patients. Clinical trials have also tested the reliability of canines in identifying patients with lung cancer by smelling their breaths. However, the idea of using dogs in treatment and diagnosis of cancer is not free from the scrutiny and doubts on its accuracy.

"I would say it's very interesting and it would be of interest to dog owners and the public, but I'm not sure how we would integrate it into the day-to-day clinical care of patients," said Charles Ryan an associate professor of medicine and urology at the University of California, San Francisco who was not involved in the research.

"Screening for prostate cancer is a very controversial area, and while I would like to think dogs could solve that problem, I don't think that's a possibility."

The study findings will be presented at the annual meeting of the American Urological Association in Orlando, Florida.