Scratch & Sniff

[s~Z]

Mal wrote:
> 
> the Robot Vegetable wrote:
> 
> >
> >
> >    Ever smelled cancer? Stinks to high heaven.
> 
> If that were right who'd need dogs?

A dog that can sniff out cancer

Summarised from an article by Beverley Cuddy, entitled 'On the scent of
a killer in our midst', in The Mail on Sunday (Oct 20th '96).

Skin specialist Armand Cognetta has had remarkable success in training a
dog to sniff out the early symptoms of cancer. Cognetta was inspired to
test the possibilities of such an approach after learning that a woman
diagnosed with melanoma had first been moved to consult a doctor by the
irritatingly persistent interest her dog was showing in the mole on her
leg. 

Working with George, an unusually compliant Schnauzer owned by dog
trainer Duane Pickel, Cognetta used samples of cancer cells to attune
his senses. Remarkably, George was then able to successfully identify 99
per cent of the cancerous samples presented to him. The dog was then
introduced to a number of real patients with suspected melanomas - and
correctly identified malignant tumours in four of them. Even more
amazingly, George has apparently been able to spot early lung cancer
from breath samples. 

According to Pickel, this ability stems from a sense of smell 250
million times more acute than humans. This is a rather exaggerated
claim, but the general point is borne out by Patrick Riley, Professor of
Cell Pathology at University College London. "A large amount of black
pigment is produced as a melanoma develops and that creates a smell. We
cannot detect the odour, but a dog perhaps can and will find it
unpleasant.
Their nasal sensory surface is the size of a handkerchief while ours is
the size of a postage stamp.