Cancer-Sniffing Dog

This morning we saw a program on CNN about a Korean firm which has succeded in cloning 4 labrador puppies from cloned foetuses of Marine, a six-and-a-half-year-old dog trained in Japan to detect cancer patients by smell. We've seen other programs on Discovery Channel on dogs that can sniff cancer out. Looks like doggie noses can sniff out more than just food!

Since it was an interesting feature, we did a google search and found the article on Yahoo to share with you.

These handout pictures released by Yuji Satoh of the St. Sugar Cancer Sniffing Dog Training Centre show Marine, the black labrador retriever said to have a cancer-sniffing ability. .(AFP/HO)

Extract of article:
Mon Jun 16, 12:20 PM ET
SEOUL (AFP) - A South Korean firm said Monday it has successfully cloned four dogs capable of sniffing out human cancers by using tissue from a retriever in Japan.The four black retrievers were born last month from cloned foetuses of Marine, a six-and-a-half-year-old dog trained in Japan to detect cancer patients by smell, RNL Bio said in a statement.

The cloning, requested by the Japanese stemcell company Seems, was conducted by a team led by Seoul National University professor Lee Byeong-Chun and verified by the medical school, it said. Seems wanted to clone the dogs because Marine could not give birth to siblings following an operation to have her womb removed, it said.

Researchers in several countries are investigating whether dogs have the ability to detect lung, breast, prostate and skin cancer at an early and treatable stage. They believe cancer cells create a scent not present in healthy cells, which can theoretically be picked up by dogs in breath or urine samples.