Sniffer dogs can detect lung cancer in its early stages, sensing volatile organic compounds on people's breath linked to cancer, German researchers say.
Scientists at Schillerhoehe Hospital recruited people with lung cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or no health problems at all for the study, Health Day reported Thursday.
The specially trained dogs were able to identify 71 out of 100 samples with lung cancer, as well as 372 out of 400 cancer-free samples, the researchers said.
Since lung cancer sufferers often have no symptoms in the disease's early stages, and current detection methods are unreliable, the findings are significant, the study authors said.
"In the breath of patients with lung cancer, there are likely to be different chemicals to normal breath samples and the dogs' keen sense of smell can detect this difference at an early stage of the disease," study author Thorsten Walles said in a release from the European Lung Foundation. "This is a big step forward in the diagnosis of lung cancer, but we still need to precisely identify the compounds observed in the exhaled breath of patients.
"It is unfortunate that dogs cannot communicate the biochemistry of the scent of cancer!"
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