Sniffing out Prostate Cancer

Dog lovers are well acquainted with a canine sensory ability for which the species is well known- the sense of smell. Dogs can be both amazing and at times vexing when using their noses. A keen sense of smell has been exploited to help in hunting, tracking, drug identification, and bomb detection.

A new use has been found for canine sniffers. Urine-Sniffing Dogs: Early Detection of Prostate Cancer, is a Science Daily article which has this to say:

Researchers report the evaluation of the efficacy of prostate cancer (PCa) detection by trained dogs on human urine samples.

A Belgian Malinois shepherd showed an ability to detect prostate cancer in urine samples. Accuracy was very good and "sensitivity and specificity were both 91%." This may become another diagnostic tool in the fight against prostate cancer.