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the claim
Dogs can detect cancer through smell
the verdict
SUPPORTED
the evidence backs this
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7 sources for · 0 against
Is it true that dogs can detect cancer through smell?
Yes. Multiple studies, reviews, and clinical evaluations demonstrate that trained dogs can detect cancer through the smell of volatile organic compounds found in breath and urine samples with high sensitivity and specificity.
Verdict: SUPPORTED · 7 sources for, 0 against · Last checked
The analysis
The provided literature strongly supports the claim that dogs can detect cancer through smell. Multiple reviews, empirical evaluations, and meta-analyses (such as papers [0], [2], [5], [6], [7], [9], and [11]) consistently show that trained canines can identify cancer biomarkers in biological samples like breath and urine with high sensitivity and specificity. There are no papers refuting this capability.
Evidence for · 7
Discusses the potential and high accuracy of trained dogs for non-invasive detection of cervical cancer biomarkers.
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Rodríguez-Esquivel, M., Sánchez-Pérez, J. A., Guerrero-Flores, H., Salcedo, E., Apresa-García, T., López-Romero, R., Valdivia-Flores, A., Jiménez-Vega, F., Aldariz, R., & Salcedo, M. (2021). Canine Detection of the Volatile Organic Compounds Related to Cervical Cancer Cells. doi.org. https://doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.95773
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More for · 6
Reviews past research demonstrating the ability of canines to differentiate between cancerous and healthy individuals through biological samples.
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Brooks, S. W., Moore, D. R., Marzouk, E. B., Glenn, F. R., & Hallock, R. M. (2015). Canine olfaction and electronic nose detection of volatile organic compounds in the detection of cancer: a review.. doi.org. https://doi.org/10.3109/07357907.2015.1047510
Provides a systematic review and meta-analysis estimating high pooled diagnostic sensitivity and specificity for medical detection dogs identifying prostate cancer.
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Warli, S. M., Firsty, N. N., Velaro, A. J., & Tala, Z. Z. (2023). The Olfaction Ability of Medical Detection Canine to Detect Prostate Cancer From Urine Samples: Progress Captured in Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.. doi.org. https://doi.org/10.14740/wjon1635
Reports that trained dogs can distinguish breath odor samples from lung and other cancer patients compared to healthy individuals at better-than-chance rates.
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Jezierski, T., Walczak, M., Ligor, T., Rudnicka, J., & Buszewski, B. (2015). Study of the art: canine olfaction used for cancer detection on the basis of breath odour. Perspectives and limitations.. doi.org. https://doi.org/10.1088/1752-7155/9/2/027001
Notes that trained detection dogs demonstrate exceptional olfactory sensitivity in clinical studies for multi-cancer detection.
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Dakhave, M., Bitan, I., Moitra, P., & Kulgod, A. (2026). Digitized canine olfaction and multimodal biosensing for breath-based multi-cancer detection: a hypothesis-driven perspective.. doi.org. https://doi.org/10.1088/1752-7163/ae441c
States that dogs and other animals have shown a high capacity to detect cancer odors with high success rates.
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Gouzerh, F., Ganem, G., Pichevin, A., Dormont, L., & Thomas, F. (2023). Ability of animals to detect cancer odors.. doi.org. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbcan.2022.188850
Demonstrates that trained Belgian Malinois dogs can identify prostate cancer from urine samples with high sensitivity and specificity.
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Protoshhak, V. V., Andreev, E. A., Karpushhenko, E. G., Slepcov, A. V., Ovchinnikov, D. V., Alentev, S. A., Lazutkin, M. V., Mamaenko, A. V., & Mamaenko, T. V. (2019). [Prostate cancer and dogs sense of smell: opportunities of noninvasive diagnostics].. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31808627/
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Receipt History
first checked05 Aug 2026
judged → SUPPORTED · 7805 Aug 2026
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