狗狗可以通過嗅覺診斷癌症

Dogs are turning out to be an even better friend to man than we could have imagined. They can spot cancer early, even ?before symptoms appear, through their magnificently sensitive noses. Yes, pretty amazing.

事實證明，狗狗是人類的好朋友，比我們想象的更好。它們能用極爲敏感的鼻子發現早期的癌症--甚至在癌症症狀出現之前。是的，真的很了不起。

Now, for the first time, a proper investigation is being set up by doctors Clare Guest and John Church, of the charity Medical Detection Dogs, to investigate this canine skill and its use in prostate cancer detection.

現在，Medical Detection Dogs慈善機構的克萊爾·蓋斯特和約翰·丘奇醫生開始了正當調查，以研究這種犬科技術及其在前列腺癌檢測中的應用。

Shockingly, prostate cancer now kills more people than breast cancer and the disease's UK mortality rates have increased by 21% since the early 1970s. Experts say medical detection dogs can identify the "smell" of the disease.

令人震驚的是，現在因前列腺癌去世的人數比因乳腺癌去世的人數更多，自20世紀70年代初期至今，該疾病在英國的死亡率增加了21%。專家表示醫療偵測犬可以識別該疾病的'氣味'。

This could spare many men the need to undergo unnecessary invasive tests. Dogs' sense of smell is 40 times more powerful than ours and can detect odours at a concentration of one part per trillion. This means they can pick up the scent of different diseases at the earliest stage.

因此，很多男性就省去了做侵入性試驗的必要。狗狗對該氣味的感知比人類強40倍，可以檢測出濃度爲萬億分之一的氣味。這就意味着它們能聞到不同疾病在初期階段的氣味。

The charity's 31 dogs are being trained to detect diseases that range from malaria to Parkinson's, but prostate cancer is their main focus. Since 2015, Medical Detection Dogs has been working on prostate cancer detection with Milton Keynes University Hospital NHS Trust. "We hope within a couple of years it will confirm previous studies we have conducted that suggest dogs have a 93% success rate," says Dr Guest.

該慈善機構的31只狗狗正在接受訓練，以檢測瘧疾、帕金森等疾病，但前列腺癌是它們的主要任務。自2015年起，Medical Detection Dogs一直在與米爾頓凱恩斯大學醫院英國國民健康體系基金（Milton Keynes University Hospital NHS Trust）合作開展前列腺癌檢測。"我們希望能在幾年內證實先前所開展研究的準確性：表明狗狗的成功率爲93%，"蓋斯特醫生說道。

If proven it would put the PSA test in the shade. Three out of four men who have a PSA test receive a positive result but don't have cancer. Nonetheless, they may have a needle inserted into their prostate unnecessarily. This wouldn't need to happen using dogs.

如果能證明它的性能優於前列腺特異性抗原測試。四分之三進行前列腺特異性抗原測試的男性是陽性結果，但他們並沒有得癌症。儘管如此，一根針還是插入了他們的前列腺，而這是不必要的。如果用狗狗偵測的話，這種情況就不會發生。

The clinical trial uses anonymous urine samples - some healthy, some cancerous - in glass pots sent from Milton Keynes University Hospital. Each pot is put on a 'carousel' - a stainless steel mechanism with eight arms. "We've trained the dogs to walk around the carousel before stopping and sitting by a sample they sniff cancer in," explains Dr Guest.

臨牀試驗使用匿名尿液樣本--有些健康、有些患癌--從米爾頓凱恩斯大學醫院寄來，放置於玻璃罐中。每一個玻璃罐都被放在一個'轉盤'上--有着8個支臂的不鏽鋼裝置。"我們已訓練了狗狗圍着轉盤走動，直到它們聞到了有癌症的玻璃罐就可以停下來坐着了。"