Exceptional things dogs can do...

[Lamplighter]

Every other week we hear of a new test to detect cancer.
I ignore them... except when it involves Laborador Retrievers.
Here is this week's entry:

A different kind of Lab test to identify colorectal cancer
Karen Kaplan, Los Angeles Times
January 31, 2011, 4:05 p.m.

Japanese researchers have trained an 8-year-old Labrador retriever
to diagnose colorectal cancer by smelling a patient’s breath and/or poop.
The Lab (who previously worked as a water rescue dog)* had an overall accuracy of 95%
when using the breath test and 98% for the stool test, according to a study published Monday in the journal Gut.

To train the dog, researchers first let her sniff a breath sample from a patient with colorectal cancer.
Then they presented her with a panel of breath samples –
one from a cancer patient and four from healthy people.
When the Lab recognized the sample from the cancer patient,
the reward was some quality time with a tennis ball. *

In the Gut study, the dog was presented with 36 panels of breath samples.
Overall, she correctly identified 91% of the samples that were from cancer patients,
and she correctly ignored 99% of the samples that were from healthy volunteers.

The Lab did a better job evaluating 38 panels of stool samples. In those tests,
she correctly flagged 97% of the samples from cancer patients and
correctly ignored 99% of the samples that were disease-free.
<snip>

* But for Labs, food is quicker.