VetSRev
Database of veterinary systematic reviews
Database of veterinary systematic reviews
Journal of Veterinary Behavior: Clinical Applications and Research (2010) 5: 145–152
DOI: 10.1016/j.jveb.2010.01.002
Early detection of cancers, although essential for treatment effectiveness, can be difficult to achieve, and some tests introduce additional health risks. New, non-invasive detection methods with greater sensitivity and specificity are needed. Several authors have published research suggesting that dogs may be able to detect lung, breast, prostate, ovarian, and melanoma cancers by smelling skin lesions, urine, exhaled breath, and surgically extracted tumors. We conducted a systematic search using the PubMed and EMBASE databases to identify all known published data on canine scent detection of cancers. Of 531 potentially relevant publications, 11 full text articles were examined, and 5 were selected for inclusion in the review. Two studies involved dogs detecting breast cancer (sensitivity 88% using exhaled breath and 22% using urine; specificity was 98% and 20%, respectively), 1 involved bladder cancer (41% of urine samples detected), 1 involved melanoma (75-85.7% of in situ tumors detected), 1 involved lung cancer (sensitivity 99% and specificity 99% using exhaled breath), 1 involved ovarian cancer (sensitivity 100% and specificity 97.5% using thawed frozen tumor samples), and 1 involved prostate cancer (18% of urine samples detected). One study on ovarian cancer is in progress. Early successes with canine scent detection suggest chemical analysis of exhaled breath may be a valid method for cancer detection. Tests using exhaled breath showed better sensitivity and specificity than with urine. Future research should target other tumor types, and seek to identify what exhaled compounds may signal a cancer diagnosis.
Moser, E., & McCulloch, M. (2010). Canine scent detection of human cancers: a review of methods and accuracy. Journal of Veterinary Behavior: Clinical Applications and Research, 5(3), 145–152. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jveb.2010.01.002 melanoma, breast cancer, lung cancer, dogs, bladder cancer, [Indexed using CAB Thesaurus terms], animal behavior, animal behaviour, Animal Physiology and Biochemistry (Excluding Nutrition) [LL600], Animal Reproduction and Embryology [LL250], animals, behavior, Chordata, eukaryotes, mammals, reviews, vertebrates, Diagnosis of Animal Diseases [LL886], methodology, methods, techniques, Techniques and Methodology [ZZ900], Non-communicable Diseases and Injuries of Animals [LL860], Animal Behaviour [LL300], carnivores, Fissipeda, health, Pets and Companion Animals [LL070], research, studies, lesions, analysis, Information and Documentation [CC300], publications, diagnosis, samples, detection, databases, neoplasms, data banks, efficacy, health hazards, skin, Canidae, Canis, bladder, breast, breasts, breath, cancers, chemical analysis, dermis, lungs, olfaction, ovarian diseases, ovaries, prostate, reproductive organs, skin lesions, small mammals, smell, urinary bladder, urine