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Dogs recognized presence of prostate cancer in urine samples
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Dogs correctly identified certain prostate cancer cell-derived volatile organic compounds in samples of urine, according to new data from a study conducted by researchers in Paris.
Pierre Bigot, MD, of Tenon Hospital, Paris, presented the findings.
Researchers used urine samples from 33 patients with biopsy-confirmed prostate cancer and trained dogs to recognize the characteristic olfactory signatures of prostate cancer-derived volatile organic compounds.
The dogs were then trained to distinguish cancer urine from control urine and were instructed to signal cancer urine from among five individual samples, one of which was from a patient with confirmed cancer.
Sensitivity was 100% (95% CI, 89%-100%) and specificity was 91% (95% CI, 76%-98%). The dogs correctly classified 63 urine samples in 66 total urine samples, which included 33 from the cancer urine group and 33 from the control urine group. The positive predictive value was 92%, and the negative predictive value was 100%, according to the researchers.
“These data suggest that prostate cancer tumors may excrete certain volatile organic compounds that turn up in a patient’s urine and that this ‘scent’ may be specific to prostate cancer,” Anthony Y. Smith, MD, professor and chief, division of urology, department of surgery at the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, said in a press release.
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