ECCO 2017 | Using dogs in detecting early stage esophageal and stomach cancers

Ian Banks, MD from the European Men’s Health Forum, Brussels, Belgium discusses early detection of oesophageal and stomach cancers using dogs at the European Cancer Congress of the European Cancer Organisation (ECCO) 2017 in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Dogs are able to smell very early stage oesophageal cancers and stomach cancers. These cancers usually present late because it is difficult for GPs to recognize the symptoms when they are so vague and common in other non-cancerous conditions. What the dogs are smelling now needs to be determined to be able to detect these cancers early in clinical practice.