CANCER-SNIFFING DOGS?

Benny is on a mission to sniff out his target. Success, and a treat for the Australian Shepherd, which is part of research into detecting lung cancer. These dogs can sniff out whether someone has lung cancer from a sample of the person's breath. Dog trainer Uwe Friedrich says the dogs are taught using positive stimulation. SOUNDBITE: Dog trainer. Uwe Friedrich said,"Our dogs regard the smell of cancer as lucrative, positive.

We trained them to lie down when they sniff a cancer sample. And that worked through positive stimulation. We had a large amount of samples, more than 200, and the dogs had to differentiate between cancer and cancer-free." Friedrich works together with doctors at the Schillerhoehe clinic which specializes in lung disease research.

Chest surgeon at the clinic, Dr. Enole Boedeker says they have seen a 72 percent detection success rate using the dogs and she says the animals are more accurate than traditional electronic "noses". Chest surgeon, Enole Boedeker said, "The electronic noses are extremely sensitive to influences like diet, like what the people drank, if they drank alcohol, or if they smoke cigarettes. And the dogs just don't bother. They can easily find the lung cancer amid all the other influences." The dogs can also detect a difference between long-time cancer sufferers and those who have only recently developed the disease. Despite the dogs' success, it will take more research before the canines can be permanent part of regular clinical diagnosis.

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