Milton Keynes charity training dogs to detect bowel cancer

Hetty the Labrador is one of six dogs being trained by sniffing bowel cancer positive and negative samples and indicating when they have found it. Credit: Medical Detection Dogs
Hetty the Labrador is one of six dogs being trained by sniffing bowel cancer positive and negative samples and indicating when they have found it. Credit: Medical Detection Dogs

A new project is underway to train dogs to detect the odour of bowel cancer in urine samples to help with early diagnosis of the disease.

Milton Keynes charity Medical Detection Dogs is training six of the animals to help provide an accurate, non-invasive and more sensitive method of early stage cancer detection.

The charity says just over half of those who are offered a colonoscopy screening will take it up due to the invasive nature of the process.

The Medical Detection Dogs will be trained by sniffing bowel cancer positive and negative urine samples as there is less stigma around supplying these, the charity says.

The initial six-legged team will be Flat-coated Retriever, Willow, Cocker Spaniels Mango, Callie and Dotty, Fox Red Labrador, Hetty and Black Labrador, Rosie.

The charity will be applying the same methods that have previously proved dogs can detect the odours of prostate cancer and bladder cancer. Credit: Medical Detection Dogs

Claire Guest, Co-Founder and CEO of Medical Detection Dogs, says: "We believe that information learned from our dogs about the odour of bowel cancer could help deliver an accurate, rapid and non-invasive test for early diagnosis that would be offered to clinicians to use alongside existing diagnostic methods or post treatment monitoring.

"The team has just started in the training room and early signs suggest that once again the world’s most powerful bio sensor, a dog’s nose, will have no trouble recognising the odour."

The project is in collaboration with Humber Health Partnership who will be supplying the charity with samples to train the dogs.

Andy Hunter, Colorectal Surgeon at Humber Health Partnership, says: "My team is dedicated to reducing the side effects associated with conventional treatments for rectal cancer while maintaining high cure rates.

"We began collecting urine and stool samples from our willing and enthusiastic patients. These samples, now combined with relevant clinical data, will provide the MDD team with the necessary tools to train our canine collaborators."

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