ACCORDING to a Colchester doctor, dogs could hold the key to detecting prostate cancer.

A study involved two German shepherds who sniffed the urine of 900 men – 360 with prostate cancer and 540 without.

Scientists found that one of the dogs got it right in 98.7 per cent of cases, while the other dog was 97.6 per cent accurate.

The dogs were able to detect prostate cancer specific “volatile organic compounds” in the urine.

Rowan Casey, consultant urological cancer surgeon at Colchester General Hospital, believes using dogs as a screening method could be a game changer.

He said: “They are detecting a chemical signature or odour in the cancer patients.

“This implies that a whole new avenue of research is now open to us. If we can determine these significant odours then we can develop instruments to do this same work as dogs.

“This will then allow us to discriminate between prostate cancer aggressiveness and determine which ones require treatment and those that require surveillance.”

Approximately 40,000 men are diagnosed with prostate cancer in the UK each year with 25 per cent dying of the disease. It is the most prevalent cancer in men.

But the current methods used to detect prostate cancer in men are timely, costly, potentially inconclusive and stressful.

There is a combination of blood testing, rectal examination, MRI imaging and prostate biopsy.

Mr Casey said: “The first step is normally to have a blood test by your GP called PSA to help diagnose prostate cancer.

“However this is not specific for prostate cancer and can result in anxiety and extra testing, which may be negative in up to 70 per cent of cases.

“We are going to find a lot of people have a high PSA who don’t have cancer, but have gone through all these things, including biopsies.”

The PSA test’s high reading might for example, be caused by an infection or a large benign prostate.

The MRI scan, which usually follows the PSA test, lasts around 30 minutes, and again serves as a guide, rather than definitely showing cancer is present.

The side effects of the last step, a biopsy, include infection and bleeding.

Mr Casey, who specialises in prostate cancer, said around 40 men a week undergo this process at Colchester General Hospital and a multitude of staff are involved.

The whole process from someone going to see their GP through to a biopsy result can take up to six weeks.

But Mr Casey hopes this could one day be a thing of the past if the study, by the Department of Urology at the Humanitas Clinical and Research Centre in Milan, Italy, is broadened.

Mr Casey also pointed to how the dogs were able to tell who hadn’t got cancer in 97 per cent of cases, and who could be excluded from further testing, compared to the 40 per cent rate from PSA testing.

The percentage of the dog’s brain that is devoted to analysing smells is actually 40 times larger than that of a human.

It’s been estimated that dogs can identify smells somewhere between 1,000 to 10,000 times better than humans.

Mr Casey said the testing process, of a urine sample being taken, frozen, then sent to a central lab, was also straightforward.

The NHS does not offer prostate screening because of its poor reliability.

Mr Casey said: “If they did it would bankrupt the NHS.

“This kind of urine test might be a game changer.

“Every man over 50 would give a sample to their GP, it would be frozen, sent to a central lab and, based on that, the dogs would either say this man needs to be further assessed or this man doesn’t.”

Mr Casey said: “I think it is worth a much bigger study. If the NHS feels it is worth the funding I think it should be rolled out or we could freeze the samples and send them to Italy.”