From ancient times, dogs have acted as good friends of human society. New study shows that dogs may snuffle out the odor of chemicals secreted into urine by prostate cancer tumors. This is going to set a new dimension in the field of prostate cancer detection.

In some initial experiment, the approach gave less false positives than would be estimated with the normally used PSA study.

The theory isn't fresh. Other scientists have reported unstable amount of success using dogs to sniff cancers of the skin, lung, and bladder, states MD, of Tenon Hospital Pierre Bigot, in Paris.

The hypothesis is that many cancer discharge chemicals with unique odor that can be pulled out by dogs, whose capacity of sensing of odor is much more responsive than that of humans.

More correct prostate cancer studies are truly needed, declares Anthony Y. Smith, MD, chief of urology at the University of New Mexico. "If every men with high PSA scores go on to have biopsies, less than 1/3rd will really have cancer," Smith comments.