Does cancer have a smell? Pet owners tell amazing stories of dogs detecting diseases and saving their lives

Cancer can be a silent killer.

But dozens of pet owners have revealed how their dogs were able to detect various forms of the disease before doctors did to save their lives, using their powerful sense of smell.

It is estimated that a dog’s sense of smell is 10,000 to 100,000 times more powerful than that of humans, meaning some breeds can detect a substance in a concentration of one billionth of a teaspoon.

Their superior sense of smell has been harnessed to detect a whole range of things, from detecting drugs and explosives to tracking down criminals.

Diabetic alert dogs can even notice changes in the blood that occur when blood sugars become too low or too high.

In one Quora thread asking the question “Does cancer have a smell?”, more than 100 commenters told stories of their dogs sniffing out the disease in both humans and other canine companions.

Kim Reed, a retired American Airlines accountant from North Carolina, said her dog helped detect breast cancer.

She wrote: “I had a three month old lab puppy that was going to be trained as my service dog.

“When I held her, she would insist on looking to the right and would push and scratch just below my chest.”

Dozens of pet owners have revealed how their dogs and cats discovered their cancer using their powerful sense of smell

Mrs Reed continued: ‘On examination I noticed a lump, but not necessarily in the breast, just below. I was scheduled for a routine mammogram, but I called my doctor and asked if I could reschedule it.

‘It turned out to be cancer, but it would not have been found on a routine mammography. It was right at the edge of the breast tissue and had to be specifically addressed.’

Ms Reed said if her dog had not seen the lump under her breast, it might have ‘grown and spread’.

She says her surgeon later called her four-legged friend her “miracle puppy” and that the dog is still her faithful companion today, more than three years later.

Jan Heaton said she had “always heard that animals have a sense of cancer” but had “never experienced it” until recently.

While she was walking her dog in the park, a Labrador showed interest in her, sat next to her and occasionally “nudged” her right hand.

Mrs Heaton assumed the dog was just looking for attention, but the owner then revealed she had a special ability to ‘pick out cancer in people’.

In response, Ms Heaton revealed to the Labrador’s owner that her skin cancer had returned after ten months in remission and she would undergo surgery.

The owner asked where the cancer was as the Labrador seemed focused on her right arm, and Ms Heaton confirmed the cancer was in her right upper arm.

Similarly, Heather Gunnerson of Colorado revealed that her mother’s golden retriever helped detect a rare, benign tumor in her stomach.

She said she was always wary of her mother’s dog because he was rescued from a “negligible and abusive” home and “had problems.”

But when she visited her mother more than 20 years ago, she said she was surprised when the dog approached her, wouldn’t leave her alone and “constantly stuck its nose” into her stomach.

She recalled: ‘He pushed his snout into my stomach and sniffed, rubbed and sniffed, repeat.

‘I had a lot of pain and discomfort but thought it was due to ruptured ovarian cysts which I am prone to.’

In a Quora thread asking the question “Does cancer have a smell?” more than 100 commenters gave their opinions, with the majority saying yes.

However, two days later, Ms Gunnerson went to a doctor’s appointment where they performed ultrasound scans where they discovered a ‘very concerning mass’ and she had surgery the next morning.

She said doctors found a rare, benign tumor in the lining of her abdomen.

After the mass was removed, Ms. Gunnerson said her mother’s dog lost interest in her.

Therefore, she concludes, “I think the dog could definitely smell the tumor (or something related to it) and the absence of it after I had it removed.”

Unusually, Cris Smith said that when her mother was dying of cancer, she had “hostile encounters” with dogs that ranged from growling to biting.

In addition to cancer, Ms. Smith believes canines can also smell other diseases.

Now diagnosed with kidney failure herself, Ms Smith says her own dogs have started acting ‘strange’ around her.

She explains: At first they wouldn’t take treats from my hand, which they had been doing eagerly for almost ten years, until they growled and moved away from me.

‘One day one of them bit me and broke my skin (there had been a few incidents in the recent past), but they continued to treat my husband as they always had, with affection and enthusiasm.

‘My heart was broken by this. One day the neighbor dog ran up to me and bit me. I had played with him before and he was always friendly to me.

“In retrospect, I think this was because the dogs could smell or otherwise sense the disease.”

Along with dogs, some commentators have revealed how they witnessed cats using their sixth sense.

In support of the Quora claims: Cancer Council notes that many studies have confirmed that animals can detect cancer in the human body.

A 2021 study based in Germany and published in the British Journal of Cancer (BJC) looked at whether sniffer dogs could detect lung cancer from breath and urine samples.

After a year of training in a double-blind clinical trial, the dog was able to detect lung cancer using breath samples and urine samples, with an overall detection rate of 98%.

The researchers said the results show how dogs could therefore be a ‘simple and non-invasive tool’ used to detect lung cancer.

In addition to dogs, a wide variety of animals, including rodents, insects and roundworms, have been used for this purpose and have all demonstrated the ability to detect cancer, according to the Cancer Council.

But ‘currently the matter remains a subject of investigation rather than proceedings.’