Dogs diagnose cancer in humans

Only 6,000 residents of Kaneyama town in Yamagata prefecture have the highest rate of deaths from stomach cancer in Japan.

In order to soon discover the disease, Mayor Hiroshi Suzuki mobilized people to participate in the research program of Nippon Medical School in Chiba Prefecture, east of Tokyo. Here, dogs are trained to sniff the signs of disease in frozen urine samples sent by the Kaneyama people.

A dog is trained to sniff urine samples containing cancer cells.(Photo: Mashable).

According to Asia One, dogs have about 300 million olfactory receptor cells in their nose - much higher than the 5 million in humans. They also have a second "sniffing device" behind the nose. This combination, along with training, allows dogs to detect cancerous tumors, which have a characteristic odor. Professor Masao Miyashita at Nippon Medical School said: "According to our research, trained dogs can sniff out cancer markers with nearly 100% accuracy."

There are currently only 5 dogs capable of detecting cancer in Japan and training costs of about 5 million yen (US $ 45,000) per child.

Dogs capable of sniffing cancer are not only found in Japan. In the UK, a large-scale trial was conducted last year at the Medical Dog Training Center, where dogs are taught to "smell" prostate cancer from urine samples. The success rate of the trial is 93%.

During a training session, the dog was walked around a room with different urine samples, of which only one sample contained cancer cells. When the smell is detected in any sample, they are trained to sit in front of the sample and touch it with the nose.