It is estimated that 233,000 men in the US will be diagnosed with prostate cancer this year. Although current screening methods for the disease – such as digital rectal exams – aid early detection, they are not always accurate. But with the help of “man’s best friend,” a new screening technique could be in the cards.

A new study from Italian researchers, presented at the 109th Annual Scientific Meeting of the American Urological Association in Orlando, FL, found that specially trained dogs were able to detect prostate cancer from urine samples with 98% accuracy.

There is no denying a dog’s extraordinary sense of smell. While we have around 5 million olfactory cells in our noses – receptors that detect different odors – dogs have approximately 200 million. It is dogs’ acute ability to trace scents that has made them so attractive to the medical world.

In November last year, a spotlight feature from Medical News Today delved into the world of medical detection dogs. The feature looked at how the animals can help alert a diabetic owner to high or low blood sugar levels through being trained to detect a specific scent in their breath or sweat.

The feature also explored how dogs are now being used for detection of various cancers. One study revealed that trained detection dogs were able to detect ovarian cancer in tissue and blood samples through sniffing out volatile organic compounds (VOCs). A 2011 study, conducted by researchers at UK charity Medical Detection Dogs, found that such compounds could also be biomarkers of bladder cancer.

The authors of this latest research note that in 2010, a study demonstrated that specially trained dogs were able to smell VOCs released into urine from prostate cancer tumors. But this study only involved 33 patients. Therefore, the Italian research team set out to determine dogs’ detection accuracy in a larger sample.