BioPharma, Devices & Diagnostics, Hospitals

Wow of the Week: Penn training dogs to detect ovarian cancer

Call it the furriest cancer diagnostic. University of Pennsylvania’s School of Veterinary Medicine, Penn Medicine […]

Call it the furriest cancer diagnostic. University of Pennsylvania’s School of Veterinary Medicine, Penn Medicine and Monell Chemical Senses Center are collaborating to train dogs to detect ovarian cancer using e-sensors.

Penn’s department of physics and astronomy are also collaborating on the project, funded by an $80,000 grant from the Kaleidoscope of Hope Foundation for ovarian cancer.

Research has shown that trained detection dogs and electronic devices can detect minute quantities of odorants that signal the presence of ovarian cancer, even before the cancer can be detected by current methods, according to a statement from Penn.

Tissue and blood samples collected by Penn Medicine will be used by the working dog center for training and analysis. The initial study will assess the ability of dogs and other sensors to detect the total odorant signatures that distinguish disease from healthy samples.

Cynthia Otto, director of the Working Dog Center and associate professor of Critical Care at Penn Veterinary school said: “By utilizing the acute sense of smell in detection dogs in conjunction with chemical and nanotechnology methods, we hope to develop a new system of screening for ovarian cancer using analysis of odorants to facilitate early detection and help decrease future cancer deaths.”

Ovarian cancer is the fifth leading cause of death among women. If caught early the survival rate is 90 percent but it usually is not diagnosed until it has progressed to later stages when it becomes more difficult to treat.

Although dogs are currently only detecting samples, the idea is that future studies will determine the most suitable tissue for evaluation and will measure odor differences among various tumor grades, according to the statement.

In addition to the ovarian cancer research at Penn, dogs are being trained to detect breast cancer and prostate cancer.

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