{"id":97646,"date":"2015-03-09T09:07:19","date_gmt":"2015-03-09T09:07:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/4cd.e16.myftpupload.com\/?p=97646"},"modified":"2015-03-09T09:07:19","modified_gmt":"2015-03-09T09:07:19","slug":"frankie-the-dog-sniffs-out-cancer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2015\/03\/frankie-the-dog-sniffs-out-cancer\/","title":{"rendered":"Frankie the dog ‘sniffs out cancer’"},"content":{"rendered":"
A dog has been used to sniff out thyroid cancer in people who had not yet been diagnosed, US researchers say.<\/p>\n
Tests on 34 patients showed an 88% success rate in finding tumours.<\/p>\n
The team, presenting their findings at the annual meeting of the Endocrine Society, said the animal had an “unbelievable” sense of smell.<\/p>\n
Cancer Research UK said using dogs would be impractical, but discovering the chemicals the dogs can smell could lead to new tests.<\/p>\n
The thyroid is a gland in the neck that produces hormones to regulate metabolism.<\/p>\n
Thyroid tumours are relatively rare and are normally diagnosed by testing hormone levels in the blood and by using a needle to extract cells for testing.<\/p>\n
Smelly job<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Cancers are defective, out-of-control cells. They have their own unique chemistry and release “volatile organic compounds” into the body.<\/p>\n The canine approach relies on dogs having 10 times the number of smell receptors as people and being able to pick out the unique smells being released by cancers.<\/p>\n The man’s best friend approach has already produced promising results in patients with bowel and lung cancers.<\/p>\n A team at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) had previously showed that a dog could be trained to smell the difference between urine samples of patients with and without thyroid cancer.<\/p>\n