You might not realise this, but a dog's sense of smell is so advanced that it can detect scents in parts per trillion. Really.

As you'd imagine, this has practical applications in sniffer dogs for detecting drugs and so forth. But now, new research is being conducted that could see them being put to medical use.

A report by the Humantias Clinical and Research Centre tested 900 urine samples, with 540 without prostate cancer and 360 with prostate cancer.

The two female German Shepherds had a 90% success rate of detecting which sample had prostate cancer.

This isn't the first time such a study has been conducted. In 2011, a research confirmed that medical detection dogs have a 92% success rate.

Currently, the method of testing for prostate cancer is done via blood testing, physical examination and biopsy.

Medical detection dogs, its supporters believe, is a much more inexpensive method of early detection and has the facts to prove it.

The dogs, which are specifically trained, can be put to use in hospitals to detect not just cancer, but other infections and disease via urine samples.

Science, eh?

 

Via TheGuardian.co.uk