Early detection is efficient in all diseases, but when it comes to cancer, it can mean the difference between life and death. For this reason, much of the scientists’ efforts are focused in this field and even though some diagnosis methods are somehow unconventional, in the end, it’s the final result that matters.
A team of researchers has announced that man’s best friends, dogs, may have the capacity to contribute to the process of early cancer detection of lung and breast cancer.
This is due to the four-legged animal’s extraordinary scenting abilities which allow it to detect in the patients’ breath such cancer forms.
The trial
itself was comprised of 86 cancer patients (55 with lung cancer and 31 with breast cancer) and a control sample of 83 healthy patients.
During the study, the dogs were presented with breath samples from the cancer patients and the controls, captured in a special tube. Dogs were trained to give a positive identification of a cancer patient by sitting or lying down directly in front of a test station containing a cancer patient sample, while ignoring control samples.
The results of the study showed that dogs’ accuracy ranged between 88% and 97%. Moreover, the study also confirmed that the trained dogs could even detect the early stages of lung cancer, as well as early breast cancer.
Another team of researchers, this time at the Newcastle University, have come up with the idea of using a tiny disc, smaller than a dust speckle, whose surface is coated with special patterns of DNA or proteins which cause the cancer-specific markers to bind to the surface.
The discs are made to vibrate electronically in two modes. When a cancer-specific marker binds to the surface of a disc, in the pattern of the coating, the uneven weight causes one of the modes of vibration to change in frequency.
The difference between the frequencies of the two modes of vibration is measured, enabling the detection of tiny amounts of cancer specific marker. In theory, even the weight of a single molecule binding to the surface of a disc could be detected.
In a not so distant future, it’s likely that every oncologist will have in the office such a device and, of course, a dog.
