狗能准确嗅闻出肺癌
A dog can accurately detect the early presence of lung cancer by sniffing patients’ breath, doctors in Germany say. While researchers have known for some time that dogs can sniff out the telltale signs of other forms of cancer, this is the first study that proves dogs can reliably smell this particular kind。
This is a breakthrough for lung cancer researchers who have been trying to figure out if there are specific volatile organic compounds associated with the presence of the disease. The dog study suggests that there are。
Researchers at Schillerhoehe Hospital in Germany worked with specially trained dogs who were asked to smell the breath of 220 volunteers. The group included healthy patients, as well as people with lung cancer and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease。
The dogs correctly identified 71 positive lung cancer samples out of a possible 100, the researchers write in the European Respiratory Journal. They also correctly identified 372 non-cancerous samples out of a possible 400.
What’s interesting about this is that the dogs were able to detect cancer even in the presence of other factors, like tobacco smoke and COPD. Current lab tests for lung cancer can't do this。
This suggests that there is indeed a VOC associated directly with lung cancer, which can be detected — at least by a dog — even in the presence of other compounds。
据美国《大众科学》8月19日报道，德国医生说，狗通过嗅闻病人的气息能准确地探查到早期肺癌的迹象。虽然研究人员已经知道狗可以闻出其他种类癌症的蛛丝马迹，而这却是首个证明狗能准确嗅闻出肺癌的研究。
这对肺癌研究人员来说是一项突破。研究人员一直试图弄明白，是否存在同肺癌相关的某些特殊的易挥发有机化合物。而对狗的这项研究表明，这种化合物的确存在。
德国席勒赫厄医院的研究人员让经过特殊训练的狗嗅闻220名志愿者的气息。这些志愿者包括健康人、肺癌患者和患有慢性阻塞性肺病的人。
研究人员在《欧洲呼吸学杂志》上撰文说，狗能在100个样本中正确辨认出71例阳性肺癌样本。狗还能在400个样本中正确辨认出372个非癌症样本。
有趣的是，狗甚至能在其他因素(例如烟草烟雾和慢性阻塞性肺病)存在的情况下探查出癌症。目前实验室对肺癌的检测尚不能做到这点。
这意味着确实存在直接同肺癌相联系的挥发性有机化合物。这种化合物甚至在同其他化合物混合的情况下都能被探测到——至少狗能做到。