This Beagle Can Sniff Out Cancer—Watch Him Detect It With Shocking Accuracy
We all adore our canine friends for their lovable faces, goofiness, unconditional love, and boundless loyalty. But if there’s one thing that makes dogs extra special, it’s their impressive nose-powered abilities.
Our tail-wagging beauties possess a ridiculously powerful nose that can perform the toughest scent-detection tasks, including detecting medical conditions like diabetes and cancer with a high level of accuracy. (Watch the viral clip below)
@spotitearly Our beagle sits down = there’s a cancer odor in the sample. Just another ordinary day at SpotItEarly. #Ordinary #SpotItEarly #DogsDetectCancer #fyp ♬ ALEX WARREN LEAKED – alex warren snaps
If you’ve ever questioned whether dogs can indeed sniff out cancer, then you’ll be mind-blown by a now-viral video capturing a trained Beagle accurately detecting cancer odor in different samples. Yes, this lovely Beagle may be small, but his nose is nothing short of mighty. We have a feeling his cancer detection accuracy can rival the latest cancer screening machine.
A Super Sniffer
The short clip, posted by SpotitEarly — a biotech company focused on revolutionizing cancer screening — shows the Beagle sniffing one sample after another, then giving a cue as soon as his nose detects the cancerous sample. The cue? Sitting if he smells cancer odor in a sample. Let’s just say, our furry friends are pretty much unsung heroes in the world of medicine, all thanks to their superior sense of smell.
So far, the clip has racked up over six million views and thousands of comments, with many sharing their personal experiences proving that dogs can indeed smell cancer.
“My Beagle became obsessed with my neck, sniffing it, pawing at it, snuggling on it. A few years later, I was diagnosed with thyroid cancer,” one person wrote.
“My dog was the one who alerted me to my first tumor. So if your dog keeps nudging you in the same spot over and over again and they never did that before, get checked out,” another commented.
“My dog detected cancer on my other dog almost one month earlier than the vets,” a third person added.
How Dogs Detect Cancer in Humans
Research shows that cancer cells emit specific chemical odors, scientifically known as Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs). These compounds are usually released through bodily secretions like urine, sweat, stool, and saliva.
You’d be surprised to know that a dog’s nose is estimated to possess about 125 million to 300 million scent glands, compared to the human nose, which only has roughly five million scent glands. That means the dog’s nose is extremely sensitive to the faintest of odors that the human nose can’t detect, including the VOCs produced by various diseases.
Dogs used in cancer detection work are trained to positively identify the signature odor in cancerous samples, even when the odor is in low concentration. Through consistent training, these dogs are able to accurately distinguish cancerous samples from healthy samples.
Several studies show that dogs can accurately detect a wide range of cancers, from lung cancer to melanoma, ovarian cancer, colorectal cancer, breast cancer, and prostate cancer.
- In a 2021 study, one well-trained dog was able to smell lung cancer in urine and breath samples. Amazingly, the dog accurately sniffed out cancer odor in 40 out of the 41 cancerous samples.
- Another study established that dogs can accurately detect colorectal cancer in stool and breath samples, even when the cancer is in its early stages.
- In a study conducted in 2021, a trained female Labrador Retriever was able to detect breast cancer in urine samples with almost 100% accuracy.
- In a 2015 study, two German Shepherds were able to sniff out prostate cancer in urine samples with near-perfect precision.
- In another study, two dogs were able to detect melanoma with 100% accuracy in a patient whose cancer pathology test was initially negative.
It’s also not unusual for an untrained pet dog to sniff out cancer in their human. In one instance, a Border Collie mix sniffed out a cancerous tumour on his owner’s face several months before his diagnosis.
