Pet Detective

Your pet already lowers your blood pressure and gives you emotional support. What if it could also identify your colon cancer?

In a new study, a Labrador learned how to sniff out cancer and was able to detect colon cancer. It was nearly as efficient as a colonoscopy. The dog was given breath samples of 306 patients, collected before they received colonoscopies; 48 patients had recently been diagnosed with cancer, and the other 258 were either suffering from another colorectal problem or had survived cancer, or were healthy.

The investigators found that the dog was at least 95% as competent at identifying cancer as colonoscopy when smelling breath samples. But the most important advantage of this technique is that the dog was especially good at detecting early-stage cancer, and could discern polyps from malignancies, which colonoscopies can't do. Detection of early-stage cancers is crucial in bowel cancer diagnosis because surgery can cure almost 90% of patients at an early stage.

Although we will not see the routine use of scent dogs in cancer screening (they're too expensive), this investigation suggests that other methods could be developed to pick up the same scent: a specific cancer smell exists and may become very effective tools.

From TIME Magazine, by Meredith Melnick. Picture by Juliet White/Photographer's Choice via Getty Images.