Can dogs really detect cancer? A Montreal study aims to find out
A joint study by the University of Montreal's Faculty of Veterinary Medicine and the Institut Curie in Paris will test whether dogs can really detect the smell of cancer or even COVID-19, as some experiments have suggested.
These experiments have offered some hope that a dog could one day be asked to sniff a patient's breath to check for lung cancer or to walk through an airport looking for COVID-infected passengers based on the smell of their sweat.
In a systematic review of these studies, however, the Quebec and French researchers found that these results were based on very small samples and that the dogs may have fooled the humans.
“The study was not conducted in a blind or randomized condition, so the dog or another person in the room with him had an influence on how quickly he understood what was expected of him," said Dr. Eric Troncy of the University of Montreal's Faculty of Veterinary Medicine.
The researchers now want to conduct a double-blind, randomized study, which means that no participant will be informed of the nature of the sample that is presented to the dog.
“We believe strongly in the dog's olfactory capacity, but we have to guide it," said Troncy. “We have to teach him that in the odours that he will sniff, there is a whole palette of odours that are negatives. And so we're trying to expose dogs to thousands of samples by making them understand that, ‘This is not a smell I want you to mark, this is the one.’”
The researchers hope to be able to improve the dog's selectivity, thus its ability to not mark negative samples.
The study, which is one of ten projects receiving a total of nearly $1 million in funding from the Royal Canin Foundation, is still in its early stages. The clinical trial will be conducted in accordance with Health Canada standards, as the researchers must obtain the cooperation of various hospitals to obtain samples; this will require the green light from the ethics committees of these institutions.
They will also need to be able to get confirmation of the diagnosis from a doctor, such as a mammogram in the case of breast cancer, to see if the dog was right or not.
TRAINING
The Faculty of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Montreal will be developing a training course for all dog-training professionals interested in doing medical detection with their working dogs. The training is expected to consist of approximately seven modules and last approximately 180 hours.
“The training will be given online and in equal parts by French and Quebec collaborators," said Troncy.
Various delays encountered along the way, some of which were associated with the coronavirus pandemic, allowed the researchers to refine their experiment a bit, particularly to avoid the flaws they perceived in previous experiments.
Among other things, they decided to use dogs that are not totally 'naive'.
“We will work with dogs that have already been trained in olfactory detection," explained Troncy. “These are dogs that are trained to detect money, to detect deli meats, to detect drugs, et cetera. After that, what we're doing is re-immersing the dog in medical detection.”
The researchers also decided to focus on COVID-19 detection, given the “urgency of the situation.”
The first cohorts of dogs are currently being trained and the first results are expected early next year.
- This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on Oct. 21, 2021.
Correction
An earlier version of this story said the project was receiving $1 million in funding from the Royal Canin Foundation. It is in fact one of 10 projects to receive an overall total of $1 million in funding.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
'I just can't believe that it took so long': Body found in wreckage 3 months after deadly fire
A man accused of arson in a January Old Strathcona apartment fire is expected to be charged with manslaughter after a body was discovered in the burned building late last month.
No proof man lied to brother about number of kittens born in litter, B.C. tribunal rules
A man was denied a $5,000 payout from his brother after a B.C. tribunal dismissed his claim disputing how many kittens were born in a litter.
Quebec police hand out hundreds of tickets to Hells Angels and other bikers before 'first run' meeting
Quebec provincial police handed out hundreds of fines to Hells Angels members and other supporting motorcycle clubs who met for their 'first run' in a small town near Sherbrooke, Que.
Parliamentary report on Emergencies Act decision is 18 months past due — and counting
The erstwhile group of senators and MPs studying the federal government's invocation of the Emergencies Act over the "Freedom Convoy" was supposed to present its findings in December. December of 2022, that is.
Grandparents killed in wrong-way crash on Hwy. 401 identified
A 60-year-old man and a 55-year-old woman killed in a wrong-way crash on Highway 401 earlier this week have been identified by the Consulate General of India in Toronto.
A Chinese driver is praised for helping reduce casualties in a highway collapse that killed 48
A Chinese truck driver was praised in local media Saturday for parking his vehicle across a highway and preventing more cars from tumbling down a slope after a section of the road in the country's mountainous south collapsed and killed at least 48 people.
A candidate for Germany's key party was beaten up while campaigning for European elections
A candidate for Chancellor Olaf Scholz's center-left party in next month's election for the European Parliament was beaten up and seriously injured while campaigning in an eastern city, the party said Saturday.
Russia puts Ukrainian President Zelenskyy on its wanted list
Russia has put Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on its wanted list, Russian state media reported Saturday, citing the interior ministry’s database.
Snakes almost on a plane: U.S. TSA discovers a bag with small snakes in passenger's pants
According to an X post by the Transportation Security Administration, officers at the Miami International Airport found the small bag of snakes hidden in a passenger's trousers on April 26 at a checkpoint.