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 Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=25674