A health start-up is harnessing the power of beagles’ extraordinary sense of smell to revolutionize early cancer detection.
The company, Spot It Early, has developed a test that uses trained beagles to sniff out the four most common types of cancer: breast, colorectal, prostate and lung.
Shlomi Madar, CEO of Spot It Early, emphasized the potential impact of early detection.
“We pride ourselves as being able to detect cancer as early as stage one… So if you detect cancer early enough, you can actually increase survival rate up to 99 percent,” Madar said.
In initial clinical trials, the dogs achieved a 94% accuracy rate in detecting cancer.
The beagles’ remarkable olfactory abilities allow them to detect minute traces of cancer-related compounds. Their sense of smell is 100,000 times more sensitive than a human’s, enabling them to detect the equivalent of half a teaspoon of sugar in an Olympic-sized swimming pool.
In the lab, their natural ability is enhanced with artificial intelligence to analyze breath samples. Each dog must already be trained as a sniffer dog before undergoing rigorous training specifically aimed at identifying different types of cancer. Multiple dogs sniff each sample to ensure accuracy.
Results are provided by healthcare professionals within days, with recommendations for further steps if a test is positive.
Madar noted that this screening is not intended to replace visits to a doctor. While still in clinical studies in the United States, test kits can be pre-ordered and are expected to be commercially available next year.
