Cancer-Sniffing Dog Makes Accurate Diagnoses

Published February 2, 2011
There's a new cancer-sniffing dog on the scene. With the help of her trusty tennis ball, she's outperforming medical lab tests. Marnie, an 8-year-old black Lab, was trained by Japanese scientists to detect colorectal cancer by smelling the breath of a patient with cancer and then of healthy participants. When she identified the cancer sample, she was given a tennis ball, according to AOL Health. Marnie has performed with up to 98 percent accuracy while some current tests like the fecal occult blood test, are right only 10 percent of the time, according to the Huffington Post. Although dogs aren't regularly being used in a clinical capacity just yet, they have recognized melanoma, bladder, lung, breast and ovarian cancers in the past. Perhaps Marnie will lead the way for a new breed of medical personnel. Would you request a dog sniff-test, if you could? Tell us in a comment! Image Source: Flickr user nagobe
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Wendy Toth Wendy Toth is Senior Editor, Lifestyle for Digital Works @ NBCU. She lives in Brooklyn, has two…

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Comments (53)

jane Barroll (Unverified)
Dogs can also warn in advance of epileptic seizures! Most animals know in advance of an earthquake, too. Maybe it has something to do with the electromagnetic fields changing; birds migrate by being able to detect direction through electromagntic/gravity fields between the north & south poles. Sun-storms result in the disruption of the gravity fields on Earth and coincide with massive migrations of peoples and revolutions. This was documented by a Russian physicist in the 1960-70's/ "Cosmic Clocks".
china altman (Unverified)
YES. Without hesitation. Human life will be immeasurably enriched when we realize the infinity of learning that could open up to us if we didn't keep insisting on ourselves as superior to other living beings. All of them, even microbes, can be our teachers. With our triumphalism and intellectual chest-beating we cut ourselves off from most of life, most of the mysteries that can be solves, most of the wonder that would bring us forward, not stagnating in evolution, as we mostly are right now.
Granna (Unverified)
Absolutely! My flatcoat mix has never discovered a health problem, but no matter if she's in the house or outside, if I've touched a food wrapper of any kind and not thrown or put it away during her absence, she'll find it immediately and bring it to me if she can reach it!
Lisa
I had major throat area problems for well over a year. My neck looked like I played football and had what appeared to be marbles bulging through it. I went to six doctors - the last one a specialist. They reluctantly did blood work and concluded I must have simply put on weight in my neck. (Geniuses, eh?) I decided I'd give up. I went home and crawled into bed completely exhausted. Our dog, Annie, jumped onto the bed (she's welcome there) and pinned me down. She was right in front of my mouth, sniffing like crazy. Then she went to the front of my neck, and was licking it incessantly. I had to get my husband to get her off of me. Even then she was whining to get back to me. Needless to say, I decided to see just ONE more doctor. Good thing. I had advanced Thyroid Cancer. Our dog, Annie, saved my life. Always pay attention to your pets! They know.
Norma Rauls (Unverified)
You bet.
Janeway (Unverified)
Animals are way smarter then we give them credit too and their senses are a million times sharper than ours. I'm glad science finally see what us animal lovers have known for very long!
Anonymous
Absolutely I trust an animal's sense of smell over a humans' any day! My dog Josey is a Beagle-Walker hound and 9 times out of ten, she can always tell when my blood sugar is going low! Sure enough I'll go check and it's down below 85. We also have a cat that when she was about 2 years old 9 years ago, she would sometimes just go sit and stare at the baseboard in the center part of the house where the fireplace is and sure enough she knew way before we did that there was a couple of field mice below the house building nests in the insulation! Scientists are just beginning to uncover the 'smartness' of dolphins, (which the Navy has known even back in the pre WWII days) the intelligence of lots of creatures, Donkeys, mules for instance are way smarter than horses and lots more patient "on the job" than a horse unless the horse is well trained. We have a dog (terrier) here in Richmond, VA that is "licensed" to detect termites. They are indeed more instinctive than we give them credit for. I've always thought we dumb them down too much training them to OUR WAYS!