Good Dog! Man’s Best Friend Sniffs Out Prostate Cancer.

Dogs’ noses, chemical analytical techniques and artificial intelligence make for a powerful diagnostic combo.

Trained dogs can spot aggressive prostate cancers by detecting trace amounts of chemical biomarkers in urine samples, says a new study. The researchers describe the utility of a new multisystem approach that combines the powerful sensitivity of dogs’ noses with complementary chemical analytical techniques and artificial intelligence, ultimately delivering a highly sensitive and accurate means of diagnosing prostate cancer.

The study was published in PLOS One.

The American Cancer Society estimates that nearly 250,000 men in the United States will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2021 alone, the second leading cause of cancer mortality among men. Earlier interventions can save lives, but clinicians still lack the tools to be able to achieve this. Improvements to the way prostate cancer is diagnosed and classified can help patients with more aggressive, metastatic forms of the disease get the help they need sooner.

For now, the standard prostate-specific antigen, or PSA test, is routinely used, despite it being notoriously unreliable for accurate prostate cancer diagnoses.