Colorectal Cancer Screening with Odour Material by Canine Scent Detection

Overview

Journal Gut

Specialty Gastroenterology

Date 2011 Feb 2

PMID 21282130

Citations 77

Authors

Hideto Sonoda

Shunji Kohnoe

Tetsuro Yamazato

Yuji Satoh

Gouki Morizono

Kentaro Shikata

Makoto Morita

Akihiro Watanabe

Masaru Morita

Yoshihiro Kakeji

Fumio Inoue

Yoshihiko Maehara

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Objective: Early detection and early treatment are of vital importance to the successful treatment of various cancers. The development of a novel screening method that is as economical and non-invasive as the faecal occult blood test (FOBT) for early detection of colorectal cancer (CRC) is needed. A study was undertaken using canine scent detection to determine whether odour material can become an effective tool in CRC screening.

Design: Exhaled breath and watery stool samples were obtained from patients with CRC and from healthy controls prior to colonoscopy. Each test group consisted of one sample from a patient with CRC and four control samples from volunteers without cancer. These five samples were randomly and separately placed into five boxes. A Labrador retriever specially trained in scent detection of cancer and a handler cooperated in the tests. The dog first smelled a standard breath sample from a patient with CRC, then smelled each sample station and sat down in front of the station in which a cancer scent was detected.

Results: 33 and 37 groups of breath and watery stool samples, respectively, were tested. Among patients with CRC and controls, the sensitivity of canine scent detection of breath samples compared with conventional diagnosis by colonoscopy was 0.91 and the specificity was 0.99. The sensitivity of canine scent detection of stool samples was 0.97 and the specificity was 0.99. The accuracy of canine scent detection was high even for early cancer. Canine scent detection was not confounded by current smoking, benign colorectal disease or inflammatory disease.

Conclusions: This study shows that a specific cancer scent does indeed exist and that cancer-specific chemical compounds may be circulating throughout the body. These odour materials may become effective tools in CRC screening. In the future, studies designed to identify cancer-specific volatile organic compounds will be important for the development of new methods for early detection of CRC.

Citing Articles

Conditions and factors affecting the accuracy of olfactometric detection.

Riedlova P, Tavandzis S, Kana J, Roubec J Heliyon. 2025; 11(1):e41604.

PMID: 39866477 PMC: 11761340. DOI: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e41604.

Non-Invasive Detection of Tumors by Volatile Organic Compounds in Urine.

Hara T, Meng S, Arao Y, Saito Y, Inoue K, Alshammari A Biomedicines. 2025; 13(1).

PMID: 39857693 PMC: 11762175. DOI: 10.3390/biomedicines13010109.

Evaluation of N-NOSE as a surveillance tool for recurrence in gastric and esophageal cancers: a prospective cohort study.

Iitaka S, Kuroda A, Narita T, Hatakeyama H, Morishita M, Ungkulpasvich U BMC Cancer. 2024; 24(1):1544.

PMID: 39695429 PMC: 11656990. DOI: 10.1186/s12885-024-13327-x.

N-NOSE Proves Effective for Early Cancer Detection: Real-World Data from Third-Party Medical Institutions.

Nakajo N, Hatakeyama H, Morishita M, di Luccio E Biomedicines. 2024; 12(11).

PMID: 39595112 PMC: 11591750. DOI: 10.3390/biomedicines12112546.

Non-invasive multiple cancer screening using trained detection canines and artificial intelligence: a prospective double-blind study.

Half E, Ovcharenko A, Shmuel R, Furman-Assaf S, Avdalimov M, Rabinowicz A Sci Rep. 2024; 14(1):28204.

PMID: 39548246 PMC: 11568277. DOI: 10.1038/s41598-024-79383-2.

References

McCulloch M, Jezierski T, Broffman M, Hubbard A, Turner K, Janecki T . Diagnostic accuracy of canine scent detection in early- and late-stage lung and breast cancers. Integr Cancer Ther. 2006; 5(1):30-9. DOI: 10.1177/1534735405285096. View

Lynch H, de la Chapelle A . Hereditary colorectal cancer. N Engl J Med. 2003; 348(10):919-32. DOI: 10.1056/NEJMra012242. View

Tibble J, Sigthorsson G, Foster R, Forgacs I, Bjarnason I . Use of surrogate markers of inflammation and Rome criteria to distinguish organic from nonorganic intestinal disease. Gastroenterology. 2002; 123(2):450-60. DOI: 10.1053/gast.2002.34755. View

Lynch H, Lynch J, Attard T . Diagnosis and management of hereditary colorectal cancer syndromes: Lynch syndrome as a model. CMAJ. 2009; 181(5):273-80. PMC: 2734205. DOI: 10.1503/cmaj.071574. View

Mandel J, Church T, Bond J, Ederer F, Geisser M, Mongin S . The effect of fecal occult-blood screening on the incidence of colorectal cancer. N Engl J Med. 2000; 343(22):1603-7. DOI: 10.1056/NEJM200011303432203. View

Manfredi S, Piette C, Durand G, Plihon G, Mallard G, Bretagne J . Colonoscopy results of a French regional FOBT-based colorectal cancer screening program with high compliance. Endoscopy. 2008; 40(5):422-7. DOI: 10.1055/s-2007-995430. View

ONeill H, Gordon S, ONeill M, Gibbons R, Szidon J . A computerized classification technique for screening for the presence of breath biomarkers in lung cancer. Clin Chem. 1988; 34(8):1613-8. View

Preti G, Labows J, Kostelc J, Aldinger S, Daniele R . Analysis of lung air from patients with bronchogenic carcinoma and controls using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. J Chromatogr. 1988; 432:1-11. DOI: 10.1016/s0378-4347(00)80627-1. View

Shimbo T, Glick H, Eisenberg J . Cost-effectiveness analysis of strategies for colorectal cancer screening in Japan. Int J Technol Assess Health Care. 1994; 10(3):359-75. DOI: 10.1017/s0266462300006607. View

10.

Horvath G, Jarverud G, Jarverud S, Horvath I . Human ovarian carcinomas detected by specific odor. Integr Cancer Ther. 2008; 7(2):76-80. DOI: 10.1177/1534735408319058. View

11.

Rex D, Johnson D, Lieberman D, Burt R, Sonnenberg A . Colorectal cancer prevention 2000: screening recommendations of the American College of Gastroenterology. American College of Gastroenterology. Am J Gastroenterol. 2000; 95(4):868-77. DOI: 10.1111/j.1572-0241.2000.02059.x. View

12.

Phillips M, Cataneo R, Ditkoff B, Fisher P, Greenberg J, Gunawardena R . Prediction of breast cancer using volatile biomarkers in the breath. Breast Cancer Res Treat. 2006; 99(1):19-21. DOI: 10.1007/s10549-006-9176-1. View

13.

Winawer S, Zauber A, Fletcher R, Stillman J, OBrien M, Levin B . Guidelines for colonoscopy surveillance after polypectomy: a consensus update by the US Multi-Society Task Force on Colorectal Cancer and the American Cancer Society. Gastroenterology. 2006; 130(6):1872-85. DOI: 10.1053/j.gastro.2006.03.012. View

14.

Williams H, Pembroke A . Sniffer dogs in the melanoma clinic?. Lancet. 1989; 1(8640):734. DOI: 10.1016/s0140-6736(89)92257-5. View

15.

Pelli M, Trovarelli G, Capodicasa E, De Medio G, Bassotti G . Breath alkanes determination in ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease. Dis Colon Rectum. 1999; 42(1):71-6. DOI: 10.1007/BF02235186. View

16.

Phillips M, Cataneo R, Ditkoff B, Fisher P, Greenberg J, Gunawardena R . Volatile markers of breast cancer in the breath. Breast J. 2003; 9(3):184-91. DOI: 10.1046/j.1524-4741.2003.09309.x. View

17.

Steele R, McClements P, Libby G, Black R, Morton C, Birrell J . Results from the first three rounds of the Scottish demonstration pilot of FOBT screening for colorectal cancer. Gut. 2008; 58(4):530-5. DOI: 10.1136/gut.2008.162883. View

18.

Cheu H, Brown D, Rowe M . Breath hydrogen excretion as a screening test for the early diagnosis of necrotizing enterocolitis. Am J Dis Child. 1989; 143(2):156-9. DOI: 10.1001/archpedi.1989.02150140042017. View

19.

Phillips M, Sabas M, Greenberg J . Increased pentane and carbon disulfide in the breath of patients with schizophrenia. J Clin Pathol. 1993; 46(9):861-4. PMC: 501526. DOI: 10.1136/jcp.46.9.861. View

20.

. Screening for colorectal cancer: U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommendation statement. Ann Intern Med. 2008; 149(9):627-37. DOI: 10.7326/0003-4819-149-9-200811040-00243. View