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Trained dogs ‘sniff out cancer in blood’ with high accuracy
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Dogs trained to detect cancer by smell accurately distinguished between blood serum samples with and without non-small cell lung cancer cell-derived compounds, according to study findings presented at Experimental Biology 2019.
“Although there is currently no cure for lung cancer, early detection offers the best hope for survival,” Heather Junqueira, researcher at BioScentDx, said in a press release. “A highly sensitive test for detecting lung cancer could potentially save thousands of lives and change the way the disease is treated.”
Junqueira and colleagues sought to assess the ability of four trained beagles to detect NSCLC biomarkers in blood serum samples by scent alone.
According to study results, three of the four dogs included in the study accurately identified NSCLC samples with 96.7% sensitivity and 97.5% specificity.
“This research could pave the way for subsequent research that could potentially lead to new cancer-detection tools,” Junqueira said in the release. “One [example] is using canine scent detection as a screening method for cancers, and the other would be to determine the biologic compounds the dogs detect and then design cancer-screening tests based on those compounds.”
HemOnc Today spoke with Junqueira about the study, what she and her colleagues found, and the clinical implications of the findings.
Question: What prompted this research?
Answer : Five years ago, my colleagues and I trained diabetic alert dogs and I was so impressed with what they were able to do that I started to look into other things that dogs could potentially pick up, such as other disease processes that had odor to them. I came across research that showed dogs were able to identify an odor for breast cancer and lung cancer from breath condensate. The lead researcher of that study shared a lot of his research with me and expressed that he would like for others to prove that dogs can actually ‘sniff out cancer in blood.’ I also lost my father to cancer about 8 years ago due to late diagnosis, which led me to think that there has to be a better way to screen people.
Q: How did you conduct the study?
A: We gathered blood serum samples from patients who were newly diagnosed with NSCLC and had not started any treatment. Our control samples included healthy patients and patients with other disease processes occurring, to ensure that dogs were not just picking up on inflammation in the body. For the training, we presented a large set of samples (n = 40) to the dogs. We used positive reinforcement with the dogs — they were trained to sit if they smelled the sample with cancer. We then mixed in the control samples and performed double-blind testing with all new samples to eliminate the possibility that the dogs would remember a specific cancer sample or control sample.
Q: What did you find?
A: The dogs were highly accurate in identifying the samples with cancer. One dog was not as accurate and failed out of the program, but she later became a service dog for a victim of a crime. The other three dogs correctly identified NSCLC samples 96.7% of the time and normal samples 97.5% of the time — so it depends on the dogs’ motivation. Of note, we used beagles, because they have more olfactory nerves than other dog breeds.
Q: Did any of your findings surprise you?
A: Yes. Each cancer carries a similar odor, which is the opposite of what I originally thought. However, the dogs were able to identify the different types of cancers. What this tells us is that cancers all have a common denominator, but also have something that is attaching to them molecularly that is making them different. This is what dogs are able to pick up on. This is probably the most exciting thing that came out of our research, and we have microbiologists working further on this finding.
Q: What is the take-home message for oncologists ?
A: Oncologists should keep an open mind regarding the capabilities of dogs. Our end-goal is to figure out what dogs are smelling so that we can use this information to create a test to identify cancer early. We are now working with an imaging center in Florida to see how the breath condensate along with mammogram can reduce the risk for false-positives or false-negatives. This will be an exciting study that we are getting ready to launch now. – by Jennifer Southall
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For more information:
Heather Junqueira can be reached at BioScentDx, 25424 83rd Ave. East, Myakka City, FL 34251; email: heather.junqueira@bioscentdx.com.
Disclosure : Junqueira reports no relevant financial disclosures.