Lung cancer is the second most common type of cancer and the leading cause of cancer death in both men and women in the United States. There are several types of lung cancer, but non-small cell (NSCLC) is the most common form. Since NSCLC is so deadly, early detection is vital if a patient is to survive. However, the usual methods of detecting the disease – PET and CT scans – are both expensive and unreliable.
In recent years, researchers have been focusing a great deal of attention on finding alternative cancer detection methods. Some of this research has focused on whether dogs, with their highly advanced sense of smell, have the ability to detect lung and other types of cancer in humans.
Now, a study published in the Journal of the American Osteopathic Association has found that beagles can be trained to detect NSCLC in human blood samples with greater than 96 percent accuracy.