Can dogs sense cancer?

Training dogs to smell cancer is done in the same way that bomb and narcotics dogs are trained, pairing the target odor with a high value reward. Remember, drugs and gun powder can be isolated, but “cancer scent” is one of the thousands of organic compounds within a humans breath. read more

Yes, dogs can smell cancer. They can even smell it “in situ”, or at stage zero. Let’s take a closer look at why dogs are even interested in smelling cancer in the first place. read more

In Berlin, a group of researchers trained some dogs to detect the presence of various types of cancer, including ovarian cancer, bowel cancer (which apparently smells different from both endometrial cancer and cervical cancer), as well as bladder cancer, skin cancer, lung cancer and prostate cancer. read more

There are many published studies that prove dogs can detect cancer through breath samples, and scientists and doctors are trying to come up with a breathalyzer test that works as good as the dogs nose. So far, the only ones that can smell cancer in early stages, are the dogs. read more

Not only does their sense of smell make cancer detection possible, but research suggests that dogs can be trained actively to sniff out the cancer. read more