It has always amazed me to see how modern medical science has advanced over the last couple of centuries. All one needs to do is look at where we were
fifty years ago as compared to today to see how far we have advanced. Through the use of today’s technology we can now peer into the human body,
like never before, to search out potential problems. Every once in a while though, we find that we have overlooked something simple in our quest for
better and more accurate technology. Scientists are now discovering that dogs can be trained to sniff out certain forms of cancer in humans. We have
always known that a dog’s sense of smell is extremely sensitive, just look at their use at airports, but this could possible open up a whole new
world in the medical field. Right now they are using dogs to try and sniff out bladder tumors in patients but who knows what the future holds. Just
think, instead of going through a series of invasive tests to “search” for cancerous tumors a patient could be scanned by a dog to try and pin
point an affected area. For instance, if a patient has a suspicious lump on their breast they would need to go through several tests, some pretty
invasive, to determine if the said tumor is malignant. They could need several forms of x-rays and possibly a needle biopsy to ensure that this lump
is not life threatening. In the future though, once this would become a very reliable practice, all one would need would be an examination by a
dog’s nose. Pretty promising info.
I also remebered seeing something about this several years ago on the old "sightings" show. This would make sense when you consider how sensitive a
dogs sense of smell is. It will be interesting to see if this becomes main stream.