Sniffing out ovarian cancer:

http://www.salon.com/2015/11/22/sniffing_out_ovarian_cancer_working_dogs_help_in_the_war_on_cancer_with_their_amazing_noses/


Credit: aastock via Shutterstock)


Excerpted from "Heal: The Vital Role of Dogs in the Search for Cancer Cures"

McBaine is a black-and-white English springer spaniel with a constantly wagging tail and a passion for sniffing out ovarian tumors. During a typical day at the University of Pennsylvania’s Vet Working Dog Center in Philadelphia, McBaine is brought into a back room that’s mostly bare except for a large metal wheel in the center of the floor. Attached to the wheel are twelve small cups, one of which contains a blood sample from a patient fighting ovarian cancer. McBaine runs around the wheel, smelling each cup one by one, the black tuft on the end of his tail waving happily throughout. Then he stops, places his paw gently on one of the cups, and sits down.



“Good boy!” his trainer yells, as she tosses the dog’s favorite rope toy across the floor. Play is McBaine’s reward for finding the cancer sample among the cups that contain healthy blood samples or nothing at all.
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