动物实验 z-bo 2020-11-06 327

　　Dogs can help doctors "smell out" cancer, which sounds incredible, but in fact, this research has made considerable progress. Now, the "Cancer Sniffer Dog Project" has been approved by the British National Health System and has entered the trial phase to further verify this magical ability of dogs.

　　Xinhua International Client noticed that the University Hospital of Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, UK, has recently approved this research project proposed by the charity "Medical Sniffer Dogs". This organization has been training sniffer dogs to detect the "odor" of prostate tumors in urine samples. Researchers' previous research results showed that the accuracy of sniffer dogs to detect prostate cancer was 93%.

　　Cancer screening depends on smell?

　　Milton Keynes University Hospital urologist Iqbal Anzon said that in the past few years, there have been many reports that dogs can "smelt" the smell of cancerous tumors. This test is based on the fact that volatile molecules in cancer tumors will enter urine from cancerous cells and have a special smell. Compared with traditional cancer detection methods, urine samples are easier to collect and detect.

　　According to the Xinhua International Client, the Milton Keynes University Hospital will carry out this "medical sniffer dog" test in the next three years. 9 specially trained dogs will identify 3000 urine samples from patients. The 9 "dog doctors" include 6 Labradors, 2 Springer Spaniels and 1 Hungarian Wisla.

　　According to the research plan, the "analysis" of cancer detection made by dogs will be compared with the results of traditional cancer detection analysis to verify the effectiveness of this "non-traditional" screening.

　　What if only one dog can't accurately smell cancer? According to the test procedure, each sample will be tested by two to three dogs. If the test on the first day fails to produce an accurate result, the urine sample will be tested again on the second day.

　　At this stage, the prostate specific antigen test is an important method for clinical screening of prostate cancer. However, the problem with this test is the high false positive rate. If the diagnosis result is false positive due to inaccuracy, the patient usually needs to undergo more tests such as biopsy, which can cause other risks such as bleeding, infection, and urinary incontinence.

　　Can it replace traditional testing?

　　Prostate cancer is one of the most common cancers in American and British men after skin cancer. In 2011 alone, more than 41,700 cases of prostate cancer were detected in the UK.

　　Can sniffer dog testing replace traditional prostate cancer screening? It is too early to draw a conclusion. No one knows how sniffer canine cancer detection can be applied clinically and whether it can be widely promoted. However, the researchers believe that at least this test can be used as a "second line of defense." After the patient has passed the first prostate-specific antigen test, the sniffer dog test can improve the accuracy of cancer screening to prevent "false positives." "The result is more unnecessary in-depth inspections for patients.

　　Outside the UK, research on sniffer dogs to detect cancer in other countries has achieved similar positive results. In 2014, an Italian study showed that the detection accuracy of 677 urine samples by sniffer dogs was 98%.

　　In fact, the research on sniffer dogs to find malignant tumors through smell has been conducted for more than 20 years. Researchers have found that the cancers that dogs can smell include lung cancer, breast cancer, bladder cancer, ovarian cancer, prostate cancer, colorectal cancer and so on. In addition to smelling the smell of malignant tumors in the urine, dogs can also smell the special smell in the breath of cancer patients.

　　If a dog can become a doctor one day, it will be a boon to many patients. For example, colonoscopy for colon cancer screening is miserable. If a dog is allowed to check it, only a sample of the patient’s breath is collected and the dog can smell it. It’s easy and painless, saving time and effort.

　　"hairy biodetector"

　　Generally, it takes 6 months of training for sniffer dogs to become reliable "cancer detection experts". At the beginning of training, the dog will be rewarded for any smell in the urine sample. Subsequently, they will only be rewarded if they smell the cancer tumor. Whether untrained dogs can detect cancer, there is no relevant research yet.

　　However, according to Claire Gerst, one of the founders of the "Medical Sniffer Dogs" agency, her untrained pet dog Daisy helped her detect breast cancer. In 2009, Gerst discovered that Daisy always inexplicably arched a painful area in her chest. Later, she was screened for breast cancer and found two tumors.

　　Guest said that the reliability of dog noses is more reliable than most existing cancer screening tests. "We know that their sense of smell is super sensitive, with an accuracy of one part in a trillion. That is equivalent to a drop of blood in the blood bank in two Olympic-sized swimming pools."

　　Guest believes that the early cancer screening rate in the UK is at a relatively low level in Europe. The national health system should "boldly" introduce innovative methods for early cancer screening. "We shouldn't give up these high-precision biodetectors just because they have fur."