Physician tests dogs' potential as cancer alert system

"Ginger! Find Fred!" shouted Scripps Clinic gynecologist Robert Gordon as his Chihuahua scampered along a line of seven small cups of urine.

After getting a whiff of each, Ginger plunked down beside No. 5. Gordon waited a few seconds to see if the dog would stay, then yelled "Yes!" in a cheering voice.

Under way for more than a year, Gordon's Find "Fred" project – his euphemism for a cancer patient – has evolved into a Scripps-approved clinical trial to see if dogs can be trained to detect early signs of human cancer through odor signatures of the disease. ... more