Two German Shepherds have been found to be able to detect prostate cancer with a near-perfect score/
The department of urology at the Humanitas Clinical and Research Centre in Milan conducted the study and had the dogs sniff the urine of 900 men. Of those subjects, 360 of them had prostate cancer, 540 of them did not.
One dog was able to sniff which urine sample was submitted by the man with prostate cancer 98.7 per cent of the time. The other dog had an accuracy rate of 97.6 per cent.
The research was published in the Journal of Urology and the dogs were three-year-old female detection dogs who had been trained in explosion detection. The tests took place at the Italian teaching hospital and at the Italian Ministry of Defense Military Veterinary Center.
The research was conducted on behalf of the charity Medical Detection Dogs which is based in the UK. 
Co-founder Dr Claire Guest said the foundation’s own research had found a 93% reliability rate when detecting bladder and prostate cancer. The new results are
spectacular,” she said in an interview with the Guernsey News.
“They offer us further proof that dogs have the ability to detect human cancer. It is particularly exciting that we have such a high success rate in the detection of prostate cancer, for which the existing tests are woefully inadequate.
Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men in the UK, the US and Canada.
The study found the dogs can pick up a scent in a dilution of one to a thousand parts. The study said while the dogs are able to detect prostate cancer specific volatile organic compounds in the urine, an important question remains. How could a dogs’ remarkable ability to sniff for cancer be used in daily practice?
The authors of the journal said further studies are needed to investigate the potential predictive value of this procedure to identify prostate cancer.
h/t: Journal of Urology, Guernsey Press, Medical Detection Dogs
