Disease Detection By Dogs: a knowledge base for everyone

Breast cancer is the most prevalent cancer occurring in women, with 1 in 9 women being affected and more than 2 million cases per year. Timely screening increases chances of survival. However, many women do not have access to life saving screening facilities. This is due to various reasons including poverty, disability, isolation, and lack of medical resources. The World Health Organisation has reported that breast cancer is the cause of 15% of cancer related deaths in women, and we believe this number is far too high.

Institut Curie researchers hypothesize that V.O.C. (Volatile Organic Compounds), and associated odors, could be a biomarker of breast cancer. Undetectable for the human nose, two methods would allow the identification of these characteristic odours: analytical chemistry and detection by canine odorology.

Dogs have a sense of smell 100,000 to 1 million times more sensitive than humans. This means properly trained in scent detection, dogs could be able to detect the characteristic odour of a cancerous tumour in body fluids such as sweat, helping to support early detection methods.

Using dogs to detect various diseases is an idea that has grown in just a few years from the realm of « fantasy » to recognition by the scientific community. The KDOG programme, led by the Institut Curie in France has been part of this movement since 2016.

Preliminary study

In 2016 and 2017, KDOG Team started a preliminary study. The results were more than encouraging evaluated on samples that were unknown to them, the dogs had a success rate of 90.3% in the first round! This proof of concept was presented at the Academy of Medicine on February 21, 2017.

Clinical Trial

The KDOG team have come up with a technique for breast cancer screening which is still under scientific study. In 2018, KDOG started the clinical trial in order to see, in a longer time, if the results would stay encouraging. Here is the basis of the clinical trial: This process sees the individual place a compression on each breast overnight to absorb the sweat and bodily fluids which is then sent back via an envelope for analysis. The method is simple, painless and the dogs are never in contact with the patients.

1. Deep memorization phase: dogs learn to memorize the smell of breast cancer on compresses that have been directly in contact with a cancerous tumour.

2. Reduction of the threshold level: the dog continues to train with compresses covered in sweat which had previously come from a cancerous breast.

3. Case study: the « cancer » compress is placed in the middle of « healthy » compresses.

4. The dog learns to identify the difference between the negative samples and positive samples.

5. The dog works in complete autonomy (without leash).

    

In 2019, the very first International Symposium sponsored by Royal Canin gathered 24 international teams in medical detection. The main conclusions admitted that the essentials of medical detection were not yet tackled and that there is a need in leading scientific excellence in this territory to help raise the bar.

The Institut Curie in France is aiming with the KDOG programme to develop a clear and effective methodology for cancer detection by dogs, while ensuring it is repeatable, reliable and ethical, wherever it is implemented. Thanks to the Royal Canin Foundation’s support, Institut Curie aims to develop a scientific toolbox with tools and protocols, certification training and guidelines in dog medical detection for scientific communities working on medical detection around the world.

The aim of the project is to LEAD the territory of Medical Detection by supporting 5 programs (« 5Ps ») that answer the 5 key questions that are today the blockers to scale up in medical detection programs with dogs throughout the world.

The goal: to offer teams who wish to engage in the detection of diseases (cancers, viruses bacteria, or others) a reliable basis of Essentials for building their work and increasing their chances of success.

The Institute Curie 5P KDOG programs gather 5 ancillary studies aiming to raise up new scientific evidences and to build up knowledge in order to optimize medical canine detection research. The 5P have already generated 3 scientific publications, and a 4th one is ready to be submitted.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37296901/(open in new tab) https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36541180/(open in new tab) https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35645556/(open in new tab) 

The 5th of them, P5, “Rules and ethics of research” is now completed and already on line. Discover it here : https://upec.lmsmoocintouch.com/login?next=/courses/course-v1%3AUpec%2BUP001%2Bsession01/courseware/e5b47a9a38f44e0993ceebf9ccd9864c/4dc6bc357f7542109d2aa68a1b19e265/%3Fchild%3Dlast(open in new tab)

This MOOC, a Massive Open Online Course, has been designed to help medical and non-medical people to carry out research programs involving human beings.

This program has been achieved by a multi-expertise team led by UPEC, Creteil Paris-Est University.

The first program, P1, « odour sampling optimisation », is aiming at identifying which material is the best to be used for collecting the odour of human secretion sampling, like sweat, urine or breath. This work is carried out with Unistra, Strasbourg university, and the effective collaboration of Dr Damien Stayer from Twistaroma laboratory, and Laetitia Maidodou PhD student.

The second program, P2, « odour conservation and stability », is looking to decipher the best human odour conservation strategy, the best way to retain the odour on the long term, and to evaluate the best time to release it. Dr Michelle Leemans from UPEC, Creteil Paris-Est University, and Dr Vincent Cuzuel from the IRCGN, the scientific center of the national gendarmerie, are in charge of this program.

Both P1 & P2, complementary programs, are on their way, to be completed soon.

The 3rd program, P3, « Dogs ‘threshold study ” consist in measuring the bottom limit threshold of dogs’ smell, in a first place with an identified scent isolated in water, and afterward the same scent but in a complex medium with artificial urine.

This work has been carried out mainly in our KDOG Champvoisy canine center, and the participation of Handi’Chiens. This program ended in august.

The data is being analysed. A publication should be submitted by end of 2023.

The 4th program, P4, is another MOOC to be implemented. This MOOC, build up by 2 veterinaries, Dr Caroline Gilbert and Dr Sarah Hoummady, will fill up the necessary knowledge for early disease detection carried out with dogs. This MOOC is going to explain what is a smell, to present already published experiences, but is also going to talk about nutrition and animal welfare for to the dogs to be in optimum working conditions.

Thank you for your attention