A world-leading, innovative charity, Medical Detection Dogs, is sniffing out yet another way to help save lives – by training a team of dogs to detect the odour of bowel cancer.
Here in the UK, someone is diagnosed with bowel cancer every 15 minutes, making it the fourth most common form of cancer in the UK. More than 45 people lose their lives to this devastating disease every day.
The survival rate is around 60% and many of those not cured present with advanced disease – reflecting how hard it is to diagnose. Almost 85% of patients with symptoms are subjected to invasive colonoscopy procedures that often demonstrate no significant disease.
For many, the fear and discomfort of invasive screening tests mean bowel cancer isn’t caught until too late.
Medical Detection Dogs (MDD) is working with partners, The Open University and Hull University Teaching Hospital NHS Trust, to pioneer a revolutionary project that promises to transform the future of bowel cancer detection using cutting-edge technology. The charity is currently training a team of selected sniffer dogs to detect the odour of bowel cancer from a simple urine sample.
In a UK first, MDD will use urine samples instead of faecal samples as there is less stigma around supplying these and it would mean any resultant diagnostic test would be more accessible and more people would likely present for screening.
MDD will be applying the same tried and tested methodology that has previously proved that dogs can accurately detect the odour of prostate cancer and bladder cancer, in peer-reviewed trials.
The dogs have also successfully sniffed out a number of other diseases such as Parkinson’s disease, Pseudomonas and COVID-19.
Seven dogs will be trained to detect the odour of bowel cancer in the charity’s training room by sniffing bowel cancer positive and negative samples and indicating when they have found their target. This indication might be a sit, stand or stare and it will definitely result in a treat and praise.
At the end of their working day, which involves training sessions of up to 20 minutes a time interspersed with naps, playtime and trips to the nearby park and paddock, the dogs go home with volunteer fosterers to relax. The Bio Detection Dogs all live in the Milton Keynes area, in loving family homes, and get dropped off at the training centre on working days. It’s a bit like the school run and the dogs are always excited to see their four-legged friends and beloved training team.
The project will also be the first time Medical Detection Dogs has used interactive stands in a project. Developed alongside colleagues at the Open University, the stands have been designed to collect additional data about how the dogs search. This will enable the charity to learn, in a completely non-biased way, how the dogs interact with the samples, how interesting each one is to them and notice any emotional changes to their response.
A quick, non-invasive test for catching this deadly disease early could improve survival wrates and save countless lives. That could become a reality with the help of noses like those of spaniels Callie, Mango and Dotty, labradors Hetty, Jodie and Rosie, and flat-coated retriever Willow.
Medical Detection Dogs is holding an exclusive event for businesses to find out more about its bowel cancer project and ways organisations can get involved to support this ground-breaking work.
Co-Founder and CEO of the charity, Claire Guest, will talk about the potential impact of this work, inspired by her own cancer battle and there will be a chance to see the dogs at work and just how fast and accurate their noses are. It is a truly remarkable sight.
Businesses are welcome to attend between 3pm and 7pm on Tuesday June 24 at the charity’s state-of-the-art training centre at Greenway Business Park, Winslow Road, Great Horwood MK17 0NP.
To register interest in the event contact charlotte.richardson@medicaldetectiondogs.org.uk.
To find out more about detection dogs and all the other ways MDD harnesses the power of dog’s noses to save lives, visit their website.
