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Study Shows Dogs Can Sniff Out Lung Cancer

Posted by Soulskill on from the still-confused-by-pretending-to-throw-tennis-balls dept.

cylonlover writes "Last year, researchers developed a cancer-detecting electronic nose inspired by dogs' ability to sniff out different types of ovarian cancer. Now a new study has found that sniffer dogs' abilities extend to reliably detecting lung cancer. The researchers say the results of the study (abstract) confirm that there is a stable marker for lung cancer, which offers the possibility that a 'breath test' for the early detection of lung cancer could be developed."

1 of 78 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Interesting... by reverseengineer · · Score: 4, Informative

    Cancer cells are known to be different in terms of having a scent. Cancer cells tend to have deranged metabolic processes as a result of keeping up with the demands of uncontrolled growth, and as a result often spew free radicals and reactive byproducts that damage compounds in the cell, breaking them down to simple alkanes and alkenes which are vanishingly scarce in healthy cells. These compounds are volatile enough to be detected by gas analysis methods, or by scent, if you happen to have a dog available.

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    "FDA staff reviewers expressed concern about the number of patients who were left out of the study because they died."