Posted on 09/24/2004 7:51:25 AM PDT by Area Freeper
We have always suspected that man's best friend has a special ability to sense when something is wrong with us, but the first experiment to verify that scientifically has demonstrated that dogs are able to smell cancer.
Experts say it is unlikely that pooches will become practical partners in cancer detection any time soon, but that the results of the study by English scientists are promising.
They showed that when urine from bladder cancer patients was set out among samples from healthy people or those with other diseases, the dogs -- ordinary pets -- were able to identify the cancer urine almost three times more often than would be expected by chance alone.
"The issue is not whether or not they can detect cancer, because clearly they can. The issue is whether you can set up a system whereby they can communicate with you. That requires further ingenuity," said Tim Cole, a professor of medical statistics at Imperial College in London, who was not connected with the research but is the owner of a labrador retriever.
David Neal, a bladder and prostate cancer surgeon at Cambridge University in England, said it was plausible that dogs might be able to pick up the scent of cancer because people with the disease shed unique abnormal proteins in their urine.
"I'm skeptical about whether it will be implementable, but scientifically it should be followed up," said Neal, a spokesman for Cancer Research UK, Britain's cancer society, who was not involved in the research.
"It might be that the dogs are better than our current machines at picking up abnormal proteins in the urine. What are the dogs picking up? Can we get a machine that does the same?"
A dog's sense of smell is generally 10,000 to 100,000 times better than a human's.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
Of course, it was a psychiatric hospital.
It sounds promising, although I don't think that a Dog Scan will replace a Cat Scan in the forseeable future. (Insert rimshot here!)
So much talent, and yet they spend most of their time sniffing each other's butts.
Wow, check your prostate Jack!
Dog Scan.
Just play it safe and have a PET Scan! < |:)~
Two guys walked past a dog who was happily licking his genitals.
"Damn, I wish I could do that!" said one fellow.
"Go ahead--he looks friendly!" was the reply.
I remember hearing a story a few years ago about a woman whose dog kept licking the back of her leg. They found out the woman had cancer in that area.
Hmmm! Monica has been described as a dog. I wonder what that implies for Mr. Clinton.
...once worked in a hospital with a nurse who claimed to be able to smell cancer.
One of my neighbors years ago was a nurse in a regular hospital. She said she could definnitely smell cancer. Odd.
I wonder if it will replace pap smears. Oops, better not go there.
The way they teach dogs to sniff for explosives might be used.
That is awful... LOL!
Yes I hear you! Get away from me you lousy mutt!
Fascinating.
So that's why dogs sniff your crotch - they're practicing medicine and checking you for cancer. Good puppy...
I heard on the radio this morning that that story was one of the reasons for this study. The dog kept smelling at her moles and finally took a bite of one. Upon examination, the woman had mylenoma.
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