Doctors in Paris of the Hospital Tenon trained dogs todistinguish between the smell of urine from men with and those without prostatecancer. At the end of the training and study of 63 dogscorrectly identified a total of 66 samples.
It may seem strange, but there could be something. Many animals havefar more sensitive than humans, cats can see into the near darkness, elephants sensitive feet, can detect traces of other elephants mile away, and soon. Dogs are obviously known for their remarkable sense of smell, so they are used by police to sniff drugs, explosivesand escaped prisoners.
sense of smell is said Canine acutethan 100,000 times ours, and prostate cancer cells may identify distinct smells. Jean-Nicolas Cornu Leadresearcher concluded that the dogs "are certainlyrecognizing the smell of the molecule that is produced by cancerous cells." Although the new research is promising, the real value is in identifying molecules thespecific dogs detection.
Some scientists are cautiously optimistic, noting thestudy is a small, and should be replicated by other researchers to prove that thereis a genuine effect. It is also the problem of study design potential thedogs that could have been able to take cues from the unconscious researchersabout which samples were cancerous and which are not. In thisinfluence research is called "Clever Hans effect," after a namedHans horse in the early 1900s in Germany, has been claimed to be able to resolve mathproblems read and understand the German, and other amazing abilities . Carefulskeptical investigation revealed that Hans only gives the illusion of beingable to this he was opposed to reacting to subtle (and unconscious) of the indications of his trainer.
If the study can be replicated, screening for prostate cancer with dogs would be more accurate than the currently used blood test that detects elevatedlevels a prostate specific antigen (PSA) protein and has high positive rate offalse.
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