Three specially trained Beagles detected lung cancer in 97% by their sense of smell. accuracy. Scientists want to use this ability of animals to create a portable test for detecting disease.
The team at Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine uses beagles, known for their excellent sense of smell, to develop a new method of detecting lung cancer and other cancers.
After 8 weeks of training, the animals from 97%. they certainly detected non-small cell lung cancer in blood plasma samples.
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Upon entering the room with the samples lined up at the animals’ nose, the dogs sat down when diagnosed with disease – or bypassed the sample when it was free of any traces of cancer.
“At present, dogs seem to have a better natural cancer detection ability than our most advanced technology. Once we understand how they do it, maybe we can keep up with them, »says Dr Quinn.
Researchers are completing the next stage of research, in which quadrupeds detect lung, breast and colon cancer. Moreover, instead of plasma, this time the dogs check samples of the air exhaled by the volunteers. The results are promising.
However, the scientists are not going to stop there. In the next stage, they want to isolate individual substances from the samples and, with the help of dogs, search for compounds that accompany cancer. With this knowledge, they claim, they will have a chance to develop easy-to-use tests that anyone can buy at a pharmacy. Researchers talk about a test that you only need to blow on to see if there is cancer.
Meanwhile, according to scientists, lung cancer is one of the leading causes of death from cancer. Rapid diagnosis is crucial here.
Five-year survival can be expected in 92 percent. patients with stage 1 non-small cell lung cancer, and when metastatic disease occurs, the proportion drops to 10-XNUMX% depending on the stage of the disease. Meanwhile, screening tests are costly and not always readily available. On the other hand, x-rays of the lungs, according to the researchers, often do not show any dangerous changes. In turn, tomography repeatedly gives false positive results, and at the same time it is difficult to detect some types of lung cancer with this technique.