Mental Health

Dogs Four Times More Effective Than Prostate Cancer Tests

By Christine Hsu | Update Date: May 13, 2014 06:38 PM EDT

Dogs are better than medical tests when it comes to detecting prostate cancer. New research reveals that man's best friend is almost four times better at detecting prostate cancer than traditional tests.

The latest study reveals that Medical Detection Dogs are 90 percent accurate when it comes to detecting prostate cancer. Traditional PSA tests often render false positive, or show more positive results when there are actually less.  This is worrying, as false positive tests could lead to unnecessary and invasive tests.

The latest study involved Cancer Detection Dogs that were trained to detect cancer cells in urine samples.

'These results from the detection dogs are remarkable," said Dr. Claire Guest, Chief Executive and Director of Operations at Medical Detection Dogs, according to Daily Mail.

"These results from the detection dogs are remarkable," she said. "Over the years, millions of pounds of NHS funding have been poured into the traditional test methods, and yet there has been little improvement in their reliability. This has caused a huge waste of resources, not to mention the distress to the impacted individuals."

"Moreover, the detection dogs provide alternative solution that yields consistently accurate results. If our detection dogs were a machine, there would be huge demand for them," Guest added. "Dogs can pick up a scent in a dilution of one to a thousand parts. Their superior smelling power is well known. So why the reluctance to embrace this tested, time-old technology?"

"We have long recognized the remarkable ability of dogs to assist the blind and deaf.  Now we are realizing how much more they are capable of," said Betsy Duncan Smith, according to Daily Mail.

"MDD's trained dogs can detect cancer before noticeable symptoms and others have been trained to recognize dangerously low sugar levels in diabetics.  In short, this wonderful charity is training dogs to save lives," she concluded.

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