In the future if you are suspected of having cancer, the first step could involve getting the opinion of a dog.

As bizarre as it sounds, dogs’ powerful sense of smell has been anecdotally attributed to cancer diagnoses for years, and now a UK-based startup is taking this further by creating a screening service where samples are run past dogs, rather than a machine.

“Multiple trials have shown that dogs have the ability to detect cancer,” said Julia Levy, from Dognostica, the startup developing the non-invasive screening system.

“It is believed that the dogs are able to smell the ‘volatile organic compounds’, i.e. the distinctive but very faint ‘smell’ that cancer cells give off. As you know, dogs’ sense of smell is incredibly powerful.”

While a visit from a friendly pooch sounds like a nice idea, patients suspected of having cancer will at no point meet the cancer-sniffing canines responsible for determining whether they are indeed sick.

“Individuals will simply breathe into a tube, which will be sealed and sent to our laboratory for analysis,” said Levy.

“The dogs are highly trained and will be presented with the sample tubes along with a series of controls to ensure that they are performing in a consistent and reliable way.

“If the dog detects the volatile organic compound signature that is specific to cancer, they will signal what they have found.”

The patient will then be informed of the results, and referred to their doctor for further tests if they are suspected of having cancer.

“We have developed a system and technology that works efficiently and effectively with dogs to conduct the screening whilst maintaining high standards of animal welfare,” added Levy.

It’s important to note that if a patient does have cancer they will need to undergo more invasive tests to confirm it, but canine-assisted screening will ensure that only those with a high likelihood of having cancer are subjected to such tests.

In terms of accuracy, Dognostica is up there with more conventional cancer screening tools. Accuracy for such tests is measured in terms of sensitivity – how accurate a tool is at detecting people with cancer – and specificity – not recording false-positives for those who don’t have cancer, and Dognostica does well on both counts.

“Accuracy in recent trials is now running at more than 90% specificity and sensitivity and, in some cases, up to 98% sensitivity and specificity,” said Levy.

“This compares favourably with a lot of existing screening tools – one of the most notable being the PSA screening test for prostate cancer, which runs at just 72% sensitivity.”

For some cancers, this screening tool will also represent the first non-invasive screening tool ever available. Suspected lung cancer sufferers, for example, currently have to go straight for invasive testing, via x-rays and biopsies.

Other cancers involve very uncomfortable tests, such as a mammogram for breast cancer, or a colonoscopy for colorectal cancer, and Levy believes Dognostica’s screening service will provide a far better first option for patients.