Current medical tests to screen for prostate cancer are not always accurate, but a new screening technique using dogs may help solve this issue. A study by Italian researchers has found that specially trained dogs can detect prostate cancer in urine samples with an accuracy rate of 98 percent.

Dogs are already being used to detect various forms of cancer, including ovarian cancer and bladder cancer, using tissue and blood samples. For this particular study, the researchers decided to follow up on a 2010 study that demonstrated the ability of dogs to smell VOCs in urine released from prostate cancer tumors. This study only involved 33 patients, but the Italian research team conducted the study with 677 participants and two highly trained dogs.

The dogs were assessed to see if they could detect prostate cancer-specific VOCs in the participants’ urine samples. Out of the total participants, 320 had prostate cancer and 357 were healthy controls. The testing was done in an olfactory disturbance-free zone. The combined accuracy of both dogs was 98 percent, and specificity was 97 percent accurate. The first dog had a 99 percent accuracy rate and 98 percent specificity. The second dog had a 97 percent accuracy rate and 96 percent specificity.