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Canine
detectors take on the role of a pathologist
P
Ram Kumar
The
services of canine detectors will be very useful particularly
in rural areas where diagnostic facilities are lacking
 That
a trained dog can play a role in solving a large number of
murder mysteries and helping the police in tracking down criminals,
is well known. But very few know that dogs are also capable
of detecting the dreaded disease, cancer.
In an interesting move, the services of trained dogs will
soon be utilised in the diagnostic field to detect certain
types of cancer.
The challenging task of providing specialised training to
dogs in the detection of cancer, the first of its kind facility
in India, has been undertaken by Commando Kennels Private
Ltd of Secunderabad. In a chat with this correspondent, Prakash
Butt, the promoter of the company, says the strong smelling
power possessed by the dogs enables them to differentiate
the smell of a healthy tissue from that of a cancerous one.
What made Butt to take up this new activity of training. He
says, “A boy from a village came to see one of my workers
in the kennel. This boy was suffering from advanced stage
of melanoma, a type of skin cancer. I came across a news item
in one of the US journals which stated that a 44-year-old
lady had a pet dog, and it was frequently sniffing a mole-like
spot on the lady’s leg. The lady was puzzled at the dog’s
strange behaviour. She went for a health check-up and the
biopsy report revealed that she was suffering from melanoma.
Early detection and treatment cured the lady’s disease.
The pet dog’s role in detecting cancer and this boy’s
advanced stage of the same disease made me to take up this
training”.
Selected breeds
Butt, who is an engineer, has selected two breeds - German
Shepherd and Labrador - for training in the detection of cancer.
The best breed is Poodle, which has a very powerful smelling
power. He says any breed, including a stray dog, can be trained
in this new area.
He is initially concentrating on training the dogs in the
detection of three types of cancer affecting the lung, bladder
and the skin.
For the detection of lung cancer, the breathe of the patient
is taken in a plastic bag, while for bladder cancer the urine
sample is collected and for skin cancer, the biopsy.
Human smell is different from that of diseased tissue smell
and every human smell is different. He says, Trained dogs
can easily detect a bomb. But detecting a bomb inside a bomb
is a difficult task. Here lies the challenge of training the
dogs in the detection of cancerous tissues in humans”.
Through the use of hand kerchiefs he picks the smell of cancerous
tissues. For six hours the kerchiefs have to be kept in the
sample containers for collecting the scent. “All the
three dogs are responding to the training sessions and the
results derived so far are very encouraging”, he says.
Accuracy
In another six months time, But is fully confident of training
the dogs in the detection of cancer. How accurate will the
dogs be in the detection of this disease ? He says, “I
will cross check the results with all the three dogs at present
undergoing training to ensure 100 per cent accuracy.”
“The Sensory Research Institute of Florida University
in the US has already trained dogs in the detection of certain
types of cancer”.
On the scope for the detection of other diseases by the dogs,
Butt says there is possibility of detection of TB by the dogs.
Prakash has been getting encouragement from the medical professionals
and pathology labs which give him the required samples for
his training programme.
Charitable service
He plans to open a charitable detection centre for screening
the people for cancer through the services of his trained
dogs. The services of dogs can be utilised in detecting cancer
at an early stage, thus seeking early treatment for a cure
and saving costs. “The services of canine detectors will
be very useful particularly in rural areas where diagnostic
facilities are lacking”, he observed. His company is
engaged in training dogs for providing security to industrial
units and individual houses, apart from sale of dogs for specific
purposes like guarding, tracking, spotting the culprits, etc.
He has also supplied trained dogs to the police department.
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