Dogs Smell Cancer in Patients' Breath, Study Shows

Dogs Smell Cancer in Patients' Breath, Study Shows: "Dogs Smell Cancer in Patients' Breath, Study Shows
Stefan Lovgren
for National Geographic News
January 12, 2006

Dogs can detect if someone has cancer just by sniffing the person's breath, a new study shows.

Ordinary household dogs with only a few weeks of basic 'puppy training' learned to accurately distinguish between breath samples of lung- and breast-cancer patients and healthy subjects.

Photo: Hound dog and elderly woman

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'Our study provides compelling evidence that cancers hidden beneath the skin can be detected simply by [dogs] examining the odors of a person's breath,' said Michael McCulloch, who led the research.

Early detection of cancers greatly improves a patient's survival chances, and researchers hope that man's best friend, the dog, can become an important tool in early screening.

The new study, slated to appear in the March issue of the journal Integrative Cancer Therapies, was conducted by the Pine Street Foundation, a cancer research organization in San Anselmo, California."