Dog Knows Cancer Smells
Cancer cells release distinct gases. When a gas enters a dog's nose it gets sorted the way your eyes can sort the texture on the dog's nose on this screen. Dog's noses are so refined they can recognize the twist of different chemicals wafting up from a ten-year-old drop of blood.
You've probably seen a dog insistently sniff. Some dog owners had pets that kept snuffling specific patches of the owners' skin. Some of these people acted on their dog's advice and had the spots checked out. When they were diagnosed with skin cancer they told doctors about the sniffing behavior, and that opened the door to a look at whether the dogs were actually recognizing cancer. It turned out they were.
This new understanding that different cancers have different smells, coupled with a deeper understanding of how dog's detect and sort smells, may deliver cancer and other disease detection devices.
Source Material: http://chirp.wildcenter.org
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