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July/August 2007 Alternative Health
Dogs Sniff Out Cancer

Americans love their dogs-all 65 million of them, which translates to two in every five households having dogs as pets. We all know that owning a pet can reduce stress, including lowering blood pressure and decreasing depression.

But can man's best friend provide early detection of cancer just by smelling their owner's breath?

Dog trainers and chemists agree that a dog's nose is one of the world's most powerful olfactory sensors. A study conducted by the Pine Street Foundation found that five professionally trained scent dogs could accurately distinguish between breath samples from patients with cancer and from the healthy control group. The dogs correctly identified or ruled out lung and breast cancer, at both early and late stages, with a 90 percent accuracy rate.

Cancer cells create different metabolic waste products than normal cells, which can be detected by a dog's keen sense of smell, even in the early stages of disease. Researchers continue to investigate how canine scent detection could inspire other modes for cancer detection, including using chemical breath analyzers.

For details, visit www.pinestreetfoundation.org.