Horvath György, Järverud Gunvor Af Klinteberg, Järverud Sven, Horváth István
Department of Oncology, Sahlgrenska University Hospital, Göteborg, Sweden.
Integr Cancer Ther. 2008 Jun;7(2):76-80. doi: 10.1177/1534735408319058. Epub 2008 May 27.
The high mortality rate associated with ovarian carcinoma is mainly owing to late diagnosis. It is thus essential to develop inexpensive and simple methods for early diagnosis. Papers on canine scent detection of malignancies such as melanoma and bladder, lung, and breast cancer have recently been published in peer-reviewed journals, indicating a new diagnostic tool for malignancies. However, in these studies the dogs may have responded to odors associated with cancer, such as inflammation or metabolic products, rather than specifically to cancer itself. Therefore, it is important to ascertain whether or not human cancers are characterized by specific odors. We hypothesized that if ovarian carcinoma emits a specific odor, dogs may be trained to detect it. Using our training method, we taught a dog to distinguish different histopathological types and grades of ovarian carcinomas, including borderline tumors, from healthy control samples. Double-blind tests showed 100% sensitivity and 97.5% specificity. Moreover, the odor of ovarian carcinomas seems to differ from those of other gynecological malignances such cervical, endometrial, and vulvar carcinomas. Our study strongly suggests that the most common ovarian carcinomas are characterized by a single specific odor.
卵巢癌的高死亡率主要归因于诊断延迟。因此，开发廉价且简单的早期诊断方法至关重要。近期，关于犬类通过嗅觉检测黑色素瘤、膀胱癌、肺癌和乳腺癌等恶性肿瘤的论文已在同行评审期刊上发表，这表明一种用于恶性肿瘤的新诊断工具出现了。然而，在这些研究中，犬类可能是对与癌症相关的气味做出反应，比如炎症或代谢产物的气味，而非专门针对癌症本身。所以，确定人类癌症是否具有特定气味很重要。我们推测，如果卵巢癌会散发特定气味，那么犬类可能可以被训练来检测它。通过我们的训练方法，我们教会了一只犬从健康对照样本中区分不同组织病理学类型和分级的卵巢癌，包括交界性肿瘤。双盲测试显示其灵敏度为100%，特异性为97.5%。此外，卵巢癌的气味似乎与其他妇科恶性肿瘤如宫颈癌、子宫内膜癌和外阴癌的气味不同。我们的研究有力地表明，最常见的卵巢癌具有单一特定气味。
