Labrador retrievers are known to be trained for many things.
They can work as seeing-eye dogs, therapy dogs, sniff for drugs,
sniff for bombs, and now, sniff bowel cancer? BBC News reports:
A Labrador retriever has sniffed out bowel cancer in breath and
stool samples during a study in Japan. The research, in the
journal Gut, showed the dog was able to identify early stages of
the disease. It has already been suggested that dogs can use
their noses to detect skin, bladder, lung, ovarian and breast
cancers. Cancer Research UK said it would be extremely difficult
to use dogs for routine cancer testing. The biology of a tumour
is thought to include a distinct smell and a series of studies
have used dogs to try to detect it.