Dogs in Training to Sniff Out Cancer.

[DBT]

I saw a documetary on this subject recently...it seems quite amazing.

Quote; (http://www.scienceagogo.com/news/20060005201345)data_trunc_sys.shtml
'Published in the journal Integrative Cancer Therapies, the study reveals evidence that a dog's extraordinary scenting ability can distinguish people with both early and late stage lung and breast cancers from healthy control subjects. The research was carried out in California and was recently documented by the BBC in the United Kingdom."


"The results showed that dogs can detect breast and lung cancer with sensitivity and specificity between 88 percent and 97 percent. Moreover, the study also confirmed that the trained dogs could even detect the early stages of lung cancer, as well as early breast cancer."

Quote; (http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?newsid=35857)
"The new study, led by Michael McCulloch of the Pine Street Foundation in San Anselmo, California, and Tadeusz Jezierski of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Institute of Genetics and Animal Breeding, is the first to test whether dogs can detect cancers only by sniffing the exhaled breath of cancer patients."

"Other scientific studies have documented the abilities of dogs to identify chemicals that are diluted as low as parts per trillion."

[Idolator]

Some seizure-response dogs can predict seizures in their "patients" well ahead of time-- weeks, even. I don't know if anyone knows what cues they're picking up on.

Alas, it seems they can't be trained to do this, and they have to learn it on their own.

[Boro Nut]

Dogs in Training to Sniff Out Cancer

This idea is nothing new. I believe it was first reported as far back as 1937 in the Gestapo Weekly.

Boro Nut

[Barefoot Bree]

I wonder what cancer smells like?

[Jay GW]

Why don't they determine what the dog is smelling and build a sensor to do the same thing?

[Don Alhambra]

You make it sound so simple. I'm sure nobody has thought of that. :p

[paradigm9]

of all the dogs in the world i get the one that only smells groins.

:rolleyes:

[Boro Nut]

I wonder what cancer smells like?

I think it's a slightly fishier version of Capricorn.

[jayh]

Some seizure-response dogs can predict seizures in their "patients" well ahead of time-- weeks, even. I don't know if anyone knows what cues they're picking up on.

Alas, it seems they can't be trained to do this, and they have to learn it on their own.


How would they know what the dog is 'sensing' weeks before it happened? Sounds a lot like retroactive fitting to me.

On the other hand, it may not be far fetched to sense a seizure beginning... dogs are very sensitive to body language.

[Naruto]

This idea is nothing new. I believe it was first reported as far back as 1937 in the Gestapo Weekly.

Boro Nut


Best. Post. Ever.

Boro Nut FTW :notworthy:

[livindesert]

Why don't they determine what the dog is smelling and build a sensor to do the same thing?

A sensor can't lick you and then roll over for a biscuit:Cheeky:

[SophistiCat]

A sensor can't lick you and then roll over for a biscuit:Cheeky:

You would let a dog lick your boobs?

[Loren Pechtel]

How would they know what the dog is 'sensing' weeks before it happened? Sounds a lot like retroactive fitting to me.

On the other hand, it may not be far fetched to sense a seizure beginning... dogs are very sensitive to body language.

This assumes seizures come out of the blue. It could be that something happens with a long leadup that the dog is detecting.

[Pavlov's Dog]

of all the dogs in the world i get the one that only smells groins.

:rolleyes:

Well if one of your friends ever gets testicular cancer, then your dog will surely know.

[Idolator]

How would they know what the dog is 'sensing' weeks before it happened? Sounds a lot like retroactive fitting to me.
A seizure dog will set you back ten to a hundred thousand dollars. Very few breeds are suitable for the work, and of the enormous numbers of dogs that are trained, only a very few will actually become service dogs of any sort.

Since these dogs are, in fact, really God damn smart, and they spend most all day most every day with their owners, a few of them learn to pick up on the specific somatic cues that precede seizures in their owners. For some people, particularly those with epilepsy moderately controlled by medication, these cues can apparently appear weeks before the onset of a seizure.

As I understand it, however, not many dogs acquire this skill, and the warning period is usually only minutes to hours.

[doghouse]

Some people with epilepsy have an aura at the start of the seizure. This is characterized by abnormal EEG activity before the obvious manifestations of the seizure. Auras last only a few moments.

Other patients have a prodrome, which can last for hours or even days before a seizure. Prodromes are not associated with abnormal EEG activity and in fact the pathophysiology of prodromes are not understood.

Although many patients have subjective sensations during their auras or prodromes, some don't. In other cases, family members detect subtle behavior changes that the patient is not aware of.

Seizure alert dog are able to detect these changes as well. Animals in general are often very sensitive to non-verbal clues such as body language, since this is a large part of their communication. As Idolator indicated, you can't really train seizure alert dogs, they either have this ability or not, although you can reinforce the behavior with rewards.

[DBT]

In the documentary shown last week, there was an experiment where they had used containers of the breath of cancer patients (some had been sealed for up to 5 years) along with controls, and the dog still managed an 80-90% success rate.

[jayh]

This assumes seizures come out of the blue. It could be that something happens with a long leadup that the dog is detecting.

Maybe so. But how do you know a dog is detecting a seizure long before it happens. The dog does not say a seizure is coming... after the fact people place that interpretation of some perceived behavior.

I am reminded of psychics who say you are getting a disease, and if you don't have it they insist that it's just not medically detectable yet.

I would expect some unambiguous signal that the dog is 'perceiving' the future seizure (and it can be falsified as well: if the dog perceives and it does not happen) before I would place much credence in that theory.


[note I am not discounting short term perception, i.e. the dog senses a seizure coming on and reacts-- I am question the alleged long term claim]

[jayh]

Why don't they determine what the dog is smelling and build a sensor to do the same thing?

Not so easy, though eventually it probably could be done. Dogs are a ready made high sensitivity analysis system, already highly efficient (and work for biscuits).

Work has been done with insects, some of which (as part of their phemone sensing) are much more sensitive. It seems that some chemicals of interest have similar signatures to the pheremones and elicit response in extremely low levels.

[laughing dog]

of all the dogs in the world i get the one that only smells groins.

:rolleyes:
Maybe its time someone had a prostrate exam. :D

[DBT]

This assumes seizures come out of the blue. It could be that something happens with a long leadup that the dog is detecting.

That seems to be the case...
Quote; (http://www.epilepsy.com/articles/ar_1084289240.html)
"Some trainers and researchers believe the dog is able to alert by detecting subtle changes in human behavior, while others assert that a dog’s heightened sense of smell enables it to detect an oncoming seizure. “I think a lot of it is that people give off cues and dogs are more alert to body language,” said Mike Sapp, Chief Operating Officer of Paws With A Cause. “But there haven’t been enough scientific studies done. So who really knows why?” Sapp believes that true alerting behavior is the result of the dog and human developing a strong bond, which can only evolve over time."

[jayh]

As the article pointed out (even with short term notification) there is a lot of potential for retroactive pattern matching.

[DBT]

It seems quite impressive to me in any case... however they are doing it.
Especially their olfactory detection abilities. (http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=518893) What a nose!