Prostate cancer detected by dogs with more than 90% accuracy

40,000 new cases of prostate cancer are reported every year

Roisin O'Connor
Saturday 11 April 2015 08:26 BST
Comments

Your support helps us to tell the story

This election is still a dead heat, according to most polls. In a fight with such wafer-thin margins, we need reporters on the ground talking to the people Trump and Harris are courting. Your support allows us to keep sending journalists to the story.

The Independent is trusted by 27 million Americans from across the entire political spectrum every month. Unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock you out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. But quality journalism must still be paid for.

Help us keep bring these critical stories to light. Your support makes all the difference.

New research has supported the idea that dogs could one day be used to sniff out cancer, after a study found that trained German Shepherds were able to detect chemicals linked to prostate cancer from urine samples with incredibly high accuracy.

A study carried out by the Department of Urology at the Humanitas Clinical and Research Centre in Milan had two German Shepherds sniff the urine of 900 men, 360 of whom had prostate cancer and 540 who didn't.

One dog was successful at identifying prostate cancer in 98.7 per cent of cases, while the other dog achieved 97.6 per cent accuracy.

It is the latest research in a series of studies stretching back decades, and boosts the hope that canines could help doctors identify various human cancers and diseases.

40,000 new cases of prostate cancer are reported every year, making it the most common type of the disease among British men.

Prostate cancer is currently detected by a blood test known as the PSA, as well as by a physical examination and by biopsy.

Buckingham-based charity Medical Detection Dogs' co-founder Claire Guest said the results from the new study were "spectacular".

"They offer us further proof that dogs have the ability to detect human cancer. It is particularly exciting that we have such a high success rate in the detection of prostate cancer, for which the existing tests are woefully inadequate," Dr Guest said.

"Over the years, millions of pounds of NHS funding has been poured into the traditional test methods, yet there has been little improvement in their reliability."

In March 2015 it was found that a dog, which was also part German Shepherd, was able to sniff out thyroid cancer from urine samples with an accuracy rate of 88 per cent.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in