There is no good way to learn you have bowel cancer, but knowing that a German shepherd is the one who first detected it might soften the blow a little.

Meet Levi von Heisenberg.

He’s one of many German shepherds that have been trained to sniff out the disease.

German shepherds are fantastic at many tasks and easy to train. Not to mention they are one of the most loyal dog breeds there are.

Now, they are being trained to assist healthcare workers to help detect signs of bowel cancer in humans.

Can they get any more amazing?

Levi happens to be a particularly intelligent and well-trained German shepherd. He aced his trial for detecting bowel cancer, which involves him sniffing for certain organic compounds in urine samples.

“Many diseases and disease-causing agents give off volatiles (odours). An alternative to molecular and physical screening techniques is the use of medical detection dogs to identify these volatile organic compounds (VOC) released from tumours. By training dogs to detect these specific odours it is possible to minimise the spread of the disease and identify at-risk patients sooner,’ reads the K9 Medical Detection NZ’s website.

What training do dogs go through?

Dogs must go through a rigorous training process to be qualified for this purpose.

We can’t just have any dogs sniffing our pee to search for disease, we have to make sure they are able to do this accurately so as not to lead to an incorrect diagnosis.

Thankfully, Levi is a very gifted dog. His success rate at detecting bowel cancer is 98.4%.

“Specifically designed scent detection equipment is used for their genetically selected working dogs. All training and testing is recorded into a specialised computer programme and analysed by Biostatistician Associate Professor Robin Turner. All training sessions are video recorded and each validation level is sent for peer review to an International canine scent detection expert in the United States.”

Tests for bowel cancer can invasive.

Colonoscopies are a particularly invasive test often used to detect the disease. A German shepherd simply sniffing someone’s urine is much easier on the patient and medical team, however.

If the GSD then detects something in the urine sample, more invasive tests can be ordered. This is opposed to waiting weeks or months for other tests.

K9 Medical Detection.

Pauline Blomfield is the chief executive of K9 Medical Detection in New Zealand. She has over 40 years of experience working with dogs.

“K9 Medical Detection New Zealand is a registered Charitable Trust comprised of a dedicated team working to improve the health of all New Zealanders by using specially trained dogs working in a controlled clinical environment to assist in the detection of cancer and other diseases,” reads the organization’s About Us page.

Blomfield believes that training dogs like Levi for this test will have tremendous benefits for

“By utilising a dog’s natural abilities we have the potential to assist the health system, help prioritise patients, and be cost-effective. We hope these results give confidence to medical professionals that our research is robust and rigorous and scientifically-based.”

She believes that once all trials prove successful, it will prove that this non-invasive screening method will be utilized in healthcare the world over.

Learn more about this fascinating research in the video below!

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Source: K9 Medical Detection NZ/NZ Herald