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If Dogs Can Smell Cancer, Why Don't They Screen People? (scientificamerican.com)
An anonymous reader shares an excerpt from a Scientific American report: Dogs can be trained to be cancer-sniffing wizards, using their sensitive noses to detect cancerous fumes wafting from diseased cells. This sniffing is noninvasive and could help diagnose countless people, which begs the question: If these pups are so olfactorily astute, why aren't they screening people for cancer right now? Here's the short answer: Dogs do well in engaging situations, such as helping law enforcement track scents or guiding search-and-rescue teams in disaster areas. But sniffing thousands of samples in which only a handful may be cancerous is challenging work with little positive reinforcement. Moreover, it takes time and energy to train these pups, who, despite extensive preparation, still might miss a diagnosis if they're having a bad day, experts told Live Science.
If dogs became mainstream at detecting cancers, there would be immediate palpable disruption to the present status quo. Schools that train doctors, radiologists and the whole associated ecosystem would be in peril.
Nice try but no. Under the best of circumstances dogs wouldn't be more than a cheap form of screening which would have to be confirmed by other more reliable methods of detection. Screening tests are useful but don't replace entire ecosystems of medicine. At most dogs can tell us that something is going on in the patient but they cannot provide much in the way of details.
Who in this industry, would support such a move? I do not see any.
My wife is a pathologist and she would happily support dogs being used to detect cancers if it were a practical and reliable approach. Nearly all doctors are more than happy to utilize any tool that will get better results for their patients. Your cynicism is misplaced.
And humans of course have almost as good of a nose as a dog
Citation absolutely needed sir.
No, it's because dogs can key off of subtle, hard to detect signals from their handlers, and then "detect" the drugs and explosives which are carried by the people with the wrong skin color.
It doesn't "beg the question." Check your dictionary (despite the overwhelmingly incorrect use of that phrase.)
Doug Jensen