Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

Hello everyone!

My partner and I saw an article about a dog having the ability to detect cancer. We want to find out whether the cancer cells are giving out a specific scent that only dogs can smell, or is it only a few certain dogs that have the ability to do so.

We are planning to experiment on this by growing our own cancer cells and have a few different dogs smell them and see if there is any reactions compare to normal cells.

Is this a safe experiment to do? If not, is there any way to make it safe?


Thank you !

Also, we are looking for dog masters/trainers who are expert on dog behaviors. We would like to find out how dogs react when they smell a certain scent, in particular, cancer cells.

Please notify us about anyone who is a dog expert in the bay area. Please include their phone number and email address.

Thank you!

Hi ellalalala,

You have a very interesting project idea! I believe you are talking about this finding:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/20 ... 194548.htm

Researchers found that specially trained dogs were able to detect cancer in the exhaled breath of cancer patients (compared to the exhaled breath of healthy people) with lung cancer. The dogs were smelling people's breath, not the cancer cells themselves. What researchers are trying to find out is what specific chemical the dogs were able to detect.

I think it would be very difficult for you to conduct a similar study, since the use of human subjects, especially cancer patients, is highly regulated. However, you could do something related to the smelling ability of dogs, including their ability to detect a particular scent among many others.

We are not permitted to post personal information (full names and contact information) on these forums. However, if you do an internet search for "Bay area dog trainer," you will find many resources to get you started.

Perhaps you could modify this Science Buddies project https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... p015.shtml to work with your idea. If you do find a good dog trainer who can work with you, you might be able to train dogs to detect a particular chemical.

I hope this helps. Please post back here if you have more questions.

Heather

Heather,

Thank you for your reply ! My partner and I understand the difficulty of what we are trying to accomplish. However, we noticed a difference in our thinking.

The idea that you talked about related to the smelling of breath in lung cancer patients. The idea that we're about to research on is about breast cancer. According to this link http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/4456224/.html the dog knows exactly the located area of the cancer.

My question is, if it's just from the breath, how did the dog able to detect the area of the breast cancer? not to mention that breast cancer is not like lung cancer, directly related to the breathing. I think that the dogs are able to smell something from the cancer cells and not just the breath. Do you have any suggestion of how we should perform this experiment?

Thank you very much!

Hi ellalalala,

Thanks for clarifying that. It is definitely an interesting line of study! Whether in the breath or through the skin, dogs must be detecting a chemical produced by the cancer cells, because olfaction (the sense of smell) is based on the detection of chemicals. Have you tried contacting local research labs (such as university labs) doing cancer research to see whether you could obtain access to cell cultures of cancer cells? You might be able to grow some cancer cells and some normal cells from the same tissue, to see whether the dogs can tell the difference.

My advice would be to start contacting potential mentors, because you will need access to a lab for culturing cancer cells.
Here is some advice for finding and contacting a mentor: https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... tors.shtml

Meanwhile, I recommend that you do some background research on cancer cells and some research on olfaction, to help you get an understanding of the biology (and chemistry) behind this phenomenon.

I hope this helps. Please keep me posted with your progress!

Heather

Hello Heather,

Thank you so much for taking the time to get back to our question. My partner and I had recently contacted a CLS that may be able to assist us with our needs of cancer cells. We will keep you updated with our progress.

Sincerely,

ellalalala