Scientific tests in the United Kingdom and the United States have shown that dogs can detect cancers because of their intensely acute sense of smell (Finch). Dogs have proved extremely accurate at detecting cancerous tissues from among those mixed with normal tissues. In May of 2002, the BBC news reported that researchers at Cambridge University in England had applied for funding to test the theory that dog's could be used to provide an early warning system for cancer because of their highly developed sense of smell (Onion; Dogs). The hope is to train dogs to detect cancer in urine samples for screening tests in such conditions as prostate cancer. Current tests for prostate cancer are not very exact, and a dog's sense of smell can detect changes in odors. Dog's can detect the changes in a patient's hormone system and temperature prior to an epilepsy seizure and warn them using their acute sense of smell, and the same mechanism may work for detecting cancer. It is not known what the dogs will actually smell in someone with cancer, only that something in the urine smells different.
A report in the Lancet in 1989 described how a Border Collie-Doberman mix dog discovered a cancerous skin tumor on her owner's leg, but it is not known how the dog was able to do this (Dog; Schulte). The dog repeatedly sniffed a mole on her thigh while disregarding others, and even tried to bite it off when she wore shorts. The dog's constant attention to the mole persuaded her to seek medical attention, which may have saved her life because the mole was a malignant melanoma. In India, a specialized training program is underway to train dogs to detect cancer at the Commando Kennels Private Ltd. Of Secunderabad (Kumar). The idea was spawned by a local village boy visiting the kennels who had advanced melanoma, a type of skin cancer, when the kennel owner read of a woman who's dog was continually sniffing at a mole-like spot on her leg, and when...