From my guest post for the Urology Times, I report on new research from Italy on cancer detection announced at the AUA 2014 meeting. In this study, urologist Dr. Gianluigi Taverna, Dr. Fabio Grizzi, and Dr. Lorenzo Tidu demonstrate dogs can now also detect prostate cancer. Highly-trained dogs Liù and Zoe were enlisted to test the urine samples of 362 men with prostate cancer and 540 men without prostate cancer. Liù was 100% sensitive and 98% specific and Zoe was 98% sensitive and 96% specific in detecting urine volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in men with prostate cancer.
The possibility of using dogs to identify men with prostate cancer is something most would have never considered possible even a decade or two ago. Long term, the challenge will be to see if a clinical model can be developed and scaled to present men with an alternative to the current methods of prostate cancer screening and detection.
Read more at The Urology Times.
