Veterinary Products and News - Can dogs smell cancer or not?

Dear Fujifilm VGTeam Family member,??

In today’s newsletter, we are going to take you on a different journey. As animals are so special to us, and at the end of April we celebrate World Veterinary Day, we dedicated this fourth Issue to the Veterinary area. In this newsletter, we aim to discuss innovative technology that allows veterinarians to take proactive measures to protect the health of pets and those around them, as our product Connectivity; the importance of the analytical profile in veterinary and whether dogs can smell cancer or not!

Imagine being able to diagnose and treat your animal patients in a single visit!?With traditional laboratory processes, valuable time is lost waiting for test results, which can delay diagnosis and treatment. However, as veterinary care continues to evolve, the importance of fast and accurate diagnostic testing cannot be overstated. Fujifilm Vasco da Gama Connectivity solution changes that.?

Clinical laboratory testing plays an essential part in the delivery of quality health care and stands at the very first beginning of the diagnosis. However, laboratory analyses require teams of licensed, highly skilled medical professionals specially trained to perform the test. The process begins with the collection of a sample of blood from the patient, which is then sent to the laboratory and examined. This can be a time-consuming process.

Contrary to laboratory tests, Point-of-care (POC) allows physicians and medical staff to accurately achieve real-time, lab-quality diagnostic results within minutes rather than hours while there are several challenges such as quality control. That is why our team developed Connectivity a POC solution that allows veterinarians to take proactive measures to protect the health of pets.?

Fujifilm's VGTeam's Connectivity Software solution works seamlessly with the Connectivity-Box solution. This solution provides a range of functionalities, including dashboards, patient work-lists, and clinical reports, that help improve communication with patients and streamline your practice's workflow. By providing immediate access to laboratory results, our solution can help you provide better patient care while improving practice management.?

Through our point-of-care testing solutions, we aim to support veterinarians in the early diagnosis of animal diseases and eventually contribute to the early treatment of animals! By incorporating Fujifilm's Connectivity Box and WEB Portal solutions into your practice, you can take advantage of these new tests to provide fast and accurate diagnoses, leading to improved animal health and well-being.?

Tests and analytical assessments in dogs and cats are an important element of prevention and diagnosis for the veterinarian, for the animal, and, of course, for their owners. A simple blood test can help confirm or rule out the suspicion of a possible pathology detected during the anamnesis; in addition to providing more complete and detailed information, so that the prescription of a specific treatment can be defined.

Its realization analyzes several parameters and helps to identify, the presence of parasites, hormonal disorders such as diabetes or hypothyroidism, and liver and kidney diseases, among many other conditions. To control so many indicators, the veterinarian usually recommends a combination of several exams: a complete blood count, a biochemical blood test, and usually asks for a urine sample too, although it may vary depending on the information needed. Any change in the analyzed values will tell what state your pet is in, and veterinarians will have more information to make an accurate diagnosis.

On the other hand, it is important to emphasize that the analysis should not be performed only as a diagnostic measure but that this procedure is also useful as a tool for disease prevention and control. Normally, an annual analytical profile is recommended to evaluate general parameters such as glucose, creatinine, cholesterol, urea, globulins, potassium, sodium, phosphorus, calcium, and proteins, among others. The control of all these levels is a key element in the early detection of some common conditions. In addition, if they are performed regularly, they also provide useful information throughout the life of the animal, helping to monitor the status of risky diseases depending on the breed and/or age of the animal.

In conclusion, an analytical profile is an essential tool for any veterinarian who wants to provide the best possible care to their animal patients. Detecting potential problems early, it allows for quicker and more effective treatment, leading to better outcomes for the animal's health and well-being. At Fujifilm Vasco da Gama, we are committed to providing veterinary professionals with the tools they need to deliver the best possible care to their patients.

Dogs have an acute sense of smell, with the ability to detect various scents that are undetectable to humans, as they can detect these odor signatures in a person's skin, breath, urine, feces, and sweat. They have been trained to detect explosives, narcotics, and even viruses and bacteria. In recent years, researchers have found that dogs can sniff out the markers of breast, colorectal, lung, and other types of cancer. This discovery could be a game-changer in the medical field, as dogs have the potential to assist in the diagnosis and tracking of cancer.

Cancer cells produce and release specific odor signatures in a person's body and bodily secretions, which are detectable in volatile organic compounds. Having said that, research suggests that dogs can detect many types of cancer, including melanoma, colorectal cancer, lung cancer, ovarian cancer, prostate cancer, and breast cancer. The proof of that is that one time, a 75-year-old man visited a doctor after his dog persistently licked a lesion behind his ear. The doctor performed diagnostic tests and confirmed malignant melanoma.?

Scientists have also found evidence that some dogs can detect colorectal cancer from a person's breath and watery stool with high levels of accuracy, even for early-stage cancers. Dogs can also detect lung cancer from a person's breath, as well as ovarian cancer from blood samples and prostate cancer by sniffing a person's urine.

In a recent study, a dog trained to detect signs of breast cancer in urine was able to detect breast cancer with 100% accuracy among urine samples from 200 people. Of these, 40 had breast cancer, 182 had other cancers, and 18 had no cancer. This study has yet to be repeated with a larger population of dogs to see if the outcomes can be reproduced. However, the results are promising and suggest that there may be a common odor signature across different types of cancer.

In conclusion, using dogs to support the detection and diagnosis of cancer is a low-risk, noninvasive method. Therefore, researchers are exploring the possibility of using specially trained medical detection dogs in diagnosing and tracking cancer.?

Thank you for taking the time to get to know our contribution to the world. We look forward to sharing our journey with you and working together to create a better tomorrow! The next Issue will be dedicated to Mental Health in honor of May being Mental Health Awareness Month!

The Fujifilm Vasco da Gama Team