The diagnosis accuracy rate of thyroid cancer reaches 88%
Recently, according to the BBC report, American researchers discovered that a dog can sniff out thyroid cancer. Tested on 34 patients, the success rate reached 88% (30 correct). This Frankie German Shepherd was trained to lie down when it smells a sample of thyroid cancer and walk away when the sample is normal. The research team published the findings at the annual meeting of the Endocrine Society.
Thyroid tumors are relatively rare and are usually diagnosed by detecting hormone levels in the blood and extracting cells. Dogs have ten times as many olfactory receptors as humans, and they can smell extremely small amounts of chemicals (the unique smell released by cancer cells).
can detect many types of cancer
The idea that dogs can smell cancer can be traced back to 1989. At that time, two dermatologists in London, England, described an interesting case in the famous British medical journal "The Lancet": A 44-year-old female patient asked to remove a mole on her leg because of her dog Always sniff the mole on her leg, even when she is wearing pants. One day, while she was wearing a skirt, her dog even tried to bite off the mole. The lady was troubled, so she found a dermatologist and asked to remove the mole for her. The results of the examination after the mole removal operation were surprising. This mole is a malignant melanoma, a fatal skin cancer. Because of the early discovery, the woman saved her life.
Later, reports of similar incidents increased. In 2003, a study by the Insitu Foundation found that dogs can sniff tumors and breast cancer from a patient’s breath. Then in 2004, the Buckinghamshire Hospital in the United Kingdom used biological testing dogs and found that dogs could sniff out bladder cancer from the patient's urine. A research article published in the Journal of the British Society of Gastroenterology showed that a specially trained 8-year-old Labrador retriever can sniff out whether a person is suffering from a person’s breath in 91% of cases. Colorectal cancer.
Last year, according to a report by Taiwan’s “United News”, a British woman Alison’s Labrador dog, Mitch, suddenly kept sniffing her left chest with her nose, and she stretched out her hand to grab it. Alison thought it might be Mitch wanted to tell her something. Alison went to the hospital for an examination and found that he had early breast cancer. After Alison received treatment, Mitch regained his former cheerfulness and wagged his tail happily, but as before, he would "check" Alison from beginning to end every morning.
The importance of developing an electronic nose
However, although dogs can smell different types of cancer, they unfortunately cannot tell us what the compounds in the smell of cancer are? Therefore, researchers are trying to replace dogs with something called an "electronic nose" to detect the unique smell of cancer.
Electronic nose is a technology developed to simulate the olfactory organs of animals. This technology is an electronic system that uses the response pattern of a gas sensor array to identify odors. It can continuously and real-time monitor the odor status of a specific location within hours, days, or even months. In fact, scientists have been developing and researching the "electronic nose". The high-efficiency, fast, and simple application prospects of electronic noses make this field very attractive.
As early as 2010, in a study published in the British "Cancer" magazine, Israeli scientists have developed a simple breath test that can detect patients suffering from lung, breast, bowel and prostate cancer. Electronic nose".
Dr. Emma Smith of the Cancer Institute UK said: “Although these trained dogs can sniff out the odor molecules released by cancer, they are not all at a high level of accuracy. Dogs are still used for large-scale cancer detection. Very impractical. However, we can study what the dog smells, and then use the electronic nose to detect the same components, which will eventually lead to a better diagnostic method."