ROBIN ROBERTS: No doubt you've
heard the expression, "if we had
only caught it earlier."
But now, those what-ifs are
prompting scientists
to literally -- are you ready
for this? -- sniff out new
methods of detecting cancer
in its earliest stages, testing
the limits of what we can do
in The Cutting Edge of Cancer.
Believe it or not, these dogs
are highly trained canine
detectives, helping scientists
like Dr. Cindy Otto sniff out
cancer as part
of a groundbreaking research
program --
DR. CINDY OTTO: Bring it!
Good job!
ROBIN ROBERTS: -- at Penn Vet
Working Dog Center.
DR. CINDY OTTO: Our dogs are
learning the odor that
is associated with something
about ovarian cancer.
It's an odor that's in the blood
that the dogs can recognize
and identify.
ROBIN ROBERTS: How
about these dogs?
What is this about?
DR. MICHAEL SMITH: Yes, so
amazing, cancer-sniffing dogs.
Cancer cells give off
different chemicals
than normal cells, what we call
volatile organic compounds.
Dogs can detect that.
We cannot.
Just think of the difference
if we can get to the point
where we're finding all cancers
early, the amazing effect
that we're going to have
on survival from cancer.
ROBIN ROBERTS: It all begins
with training these pups with
treats --
DR. CINDY OTTO: That's very
good.
ROBIN ROBERTS: -- just the way
you might train your own dog
to reinforce behavior, except
the training these guys are
getting, learning to pick out
a unique set of odors, could
lead to major breakthroughs
in cancer detection.
DR. CINDY OTTO: We reward them.
And they start to associate
that good things happen when I
smell the smell.
And the dogs
are amazing because they get it.
ROBIN ROBERTS: Do they ever,
because the experiment is
complex and the dogs have
no problem nosing their way
through it.
This giant wheel has 12 blood
samples, some with scents
intended to mislead the dogs.
And only one is from someone
with ovarian cancer.
DR. CINDY OTTO: It's a very fun
process to watch them
because you can see they're
working really hard.
They have to be very intense
because, as I said,
it's a drop of blood,
and within that drop of blood,
some tiny amount of a chemical
that's being released.
And they can pick it up.
ROBIN ROBERTS: And on command,
when the dogs find
the right sample, they sit.
DR. CINDY OTTO: Generally,
our dogs are about 90%
able to say, "this is cancer
and this is not."
My goal is to have the dogs work
themselves out of a job.
I want them to help develop
an electronic system that comes
close.
ROBIN ROBERTS: In other words,
an electronic nose.
What you're seeing here,
these wires, are actually part
of a machine that can detect
smell.
DR. CINDY OTTO:
So the electronic sensor is sort
of the translation of the dog's
nose into something
that can be reproduced widely.
DR. CHARLIE JOHNSON:
The next step, which we're just
beginning to do,
is to try to figure out what
chemicals coming out
of the blood, what smell,
the dogs are actually keying
in on.
Right, this looks really good.
And the information will come
out as an electronic signal that
will tell us whether or not
a blood sample is from a woman
with ovarian cancer.
DR. CINDY OTTO: We think
that the role that these dogs
play in changing the face
of early detection of cancer
is huge.
We actually don't even limit it
to ovarian cancer.
Can they help us
with other diseases?
ROBIN ROBERTS: Dr. Otto is one
of many making
remarkable progress
in early cancer detection,
as is Dr. David Wong, who
is developing a different method
across the country at UCLA,
where he is looking closely
at saliva.
DR. DAVID WONG: But this
is the world's largest
bio-repository of spit.
ROBIN ROBERTS: You got it, using
spit to detect traces of lung
cancer with a device he created,
called EFIRM.
Dr. Wong hopes that this device
will one day detect all cancers
and be widely
available in doctor's offices.
Put this saliva collector
under your tongue please.
DR. DAVID WONG: What we foresee
in the near future is when
the patient comes in,
a drop of saliva
could be obtained
from the subject and then could
be determined
whether those mutations exist.
And if they exist, treatment can
be prescribed right there
in the physician's office.
ROBIN ROBERTS: From saliva
to sniffing canines,
these groundbreaking approaches
share common goals to provide
fast, noninvasive, and
cost-effective methods
of early detection,
and above all, to create a world
where we can detect cancer
before it's too late.
DR. CINDY OTTO: It gives me
chills to think about the impact
that we can have.
And I think we are
on to something that is going
to break it wide open
and really save lives.
