X-Message-Number: 25674
From: "John de Rivaz" <>
Subject: Promising research into dogs taught to sniff out cancer 
Date: Wed, 9 Feb 2005 11:08:30 -0000

Deutsche Presse-Agentur (dpa)

04 Feb 2005

Brits, South Africa (dpa) - "Humans and dogs can have an incredibly deep
level of communication. Dogs know stuff about us that we don't even know
about ourselves," says American animal behaviourist Kirk Turner.

In 1999 Turner set out to determine whether dogs can sniff out cancer in
humans. A promising study in the United Kingdom and subsequent clinical
trials in the United States have since showed that canines with their
superior olfactory systems may be more accurate than machines in detecting
the disease.

He and his partners from South Africa's Council for Scientific and
Industrial Research (CSIR) are presently in the process of establishing a
dog training centre in the dusty district of Brits outside the capital
Pretoria to further explore this theory.

A study conducted at the Pine Street Clinic in California using dogs trained
by Turner to identify the breath of lung, breast and pancreatic cancer
patients since 1999, is currently under peer review.

"Basically until the results are published in a medical journal I won't make
any claim as to what my results mean. What I can tell you is that dogs have
an extremely high level of accuracy," he told Deutsche Presse-Agentur, dpa.

His findings may have profound implications for the detection of cancer,
tuberculosis and even HIV/AIDS particularly in third world countries where
resources are low and the use of modern medical technology is scant and
costly.

"The use of dogs in detecting diseases can have a potentially huge impact in
the third world where a lot of money can be saved.

Basically, it is a low-tech way of finding disease. I believe that it is
possible to work with a myriad of other diseases including AIDS and
tuberculosis," he notes.

Trained dogs could also assist in validating ...

more on


http://www.lef.org/news/LefDailyNews.htm?NewsID=1768&Section=DISEASE&source=DHB59&key=Body+ContinueReading

I would comment that the UK's National Health Service can be regarded as
being nearer some 3rd world countries, especially if you fall ill in the
wrong place or time your illness near a public holiday. Therefore this
technique could be used here to advantage. The only thing I would have
against it is if there are too many false positives and patients are then
given years of hell waiting for follow up tests. It may well be, though,
that a canine doctor's diagnosis followed by herbal medicine, followed by a
further examination by the dog could yield a cured patient, all at very
little expense. If during the period of herbal treatment the patient is also
put on the waiting list for conventional treatment, and the dog indicates
that he is not cured, then the conventional treatment can be applied
quickly.

There is another problem though -- what remaining car park space there is at
NHS hospitals may be removed to build dog kennels :-)

-- 
Sincerely, John de Rivaz:  http://John.deRivaz.com for websites including
Cryonics Europe, Longevity Report, The Venturists, Porthtowan, Alec Harley
Reeves - inventor, Arthur Bowker - potter, de Rivaz genealogy,  Nomad .. and
more

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