Can breast cancer be detected early only through a dog's sense of smell? It is quite possible, according to the KDog project, currently in progress at the Institut Curie, one of the leading cancer centers in Paris, whose first results have been presented to the French Academy of Medicine. February 21, 2017.

2 dogs detected 100% of breast tumors

It took 5 months of training for Thor and Nykios, 2 Malinois shepherds, to learn how to spot on tissues the smell of cancer cells . At the end of this period, the dogs detected all the sweat-impregnated wipes of women affected by breast cancer . These first results obtained in "phase of proof of concept" (before the setting up of a real clinical trial) thus teach us that " cancer has an odor " and that dogs smell this odor. It should be known that the dog not only has an important olfactory memory but abilities to feel much higher than ours. The olfactory acuity of the dog is indeed related to the size of its olfactory mucosa (170 cm2 against 5 cm2 in humans) and the number of olfactory cells (200 million against 5 million for the human nose).

A clinical study in 2018 on dogs sniffing cancer

In 2018, the Kdog project sponsors hope to launch a clinical study to validate these first encouraging results. It will then recruit 1000 women, volunteers, for this clinical study   expected to last until 2021 and which will participate this time 4 dogs. It will not be to be in the presence of the dog but to send a wipe carried all night on each breast and put in a jar and reported to the laboratory of the Institut Curie where dogs will analyze them. In the case of a suspicious wipe, the treatment course will be traditional and explorations such as mammography remain the norm.