The Doggie Will See You Now
Some believe that dogs can smell out cancer in humans.
Aug. 14, 2007 — -- Carolyn Withers is convinced that her dog Myles saved her life.
In September 1999 she says her normally laid-back Labrador retriever started jumping, barking and poking his nose under her arm, near her right breast. At first she thought nothing of it. Then one night, she could no longer ignore him.
"I had gone to bed and Myles actually lunged right onto the bed, and he never did that," Withers said. "And he, you know, dodged right towards my arm area, and started barking. He was in a panic. And that's when all of a sudden I felt this real fear."
After doing a breast self-examination, she found what felt like a small pearl. She says she knew immediately that it was cancer. Withers had surgery and is now fine.
Was it coincidence? Did Myles really detect the cancer? Is this possible? Manhattan veterinarian Andrew Kaplan said we'd be amazed at the information a dog's nose might provide because "a dog has approximately 220 million smell receptors in their nose, and people have about 5 million."
The idea that dogs can smell cancer has intrigued doctors and scientists and led to a number of studies. Amersham Hospital, outside of London, trained dogs to smell bladder cancer in urine. The head of the research team, Carolyn Willis, says they used urine because "the smelly chemicals that are released from the bladder cancer go directly into the urine so it's a very good model for us to use."
In these kinds of studies, the dogs are trained for the task at hand. Willis explains that the trainers started with just two urine samples — "One would be from a bladder cancer patient, the other one from a normal healthy volunteer. And the dog had to choose the bladder cancer one and, if it did, then it was rewarded."
Willis was initially skeptical about the idea, but by the end of the study was convinced that dogs can indeed smell certain cancers.
Related Stories
ABC News Live