Olfactory detection of human bladder cancer by dogs: Another cancer detected by "pet scan"

doi:10.1136/bmj.329.7477.1286-b

BMJ 2004;329:1286-1287 (27 November), doi:10.1136/bmj.329.7477.1286-b

Letter

Olfactory detection of human bladder cancer by dogs

Another cancer detected by "pet scan"

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

EDITOR—Before the study by Willis et al there was onlysparse, anecdotal evidence suggesting that dogs might trulybe able to detect human malignancies.¹ Their study complementsa recent study in which dogs were trained to identify melanomain tissue samples and were then tested for their ability todetect melanoma lesions on human subjects.²

In both investigations the dogs detected malignancies in supposedcontrols. These studies bolster the idea that dogs may somedayprove useful in the early detection of cancer. Such experimentalinvestigations are of great interest to me, as I had encountereda patient who claimed that her dog's incessant sniffing ledto her finding of a breast mass that proved malignant. Owingto the lack of substantiating literature to back up her claim,most of her medical care team brushed this off as coincidence,particularly since the lesion was internal rather than cutaneousas . . . [Full text of this article]

James S Welsh, associate professor of human oncology

University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53792, USA welsh@humonc.wisc.edu

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Relevant Article

Olfactory detection of human bladder cancer by dogs: proof of principle study: Carolyn M Willis, Susannah M Church, Claire M Guest, W Andrew Cook, Noel McCarthy, Anthea J Bransbury, Martin R T Church, and John C T Church
BMJ 2004 329: 712. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]