離開
進入《中英對照讀新聞》Dogs may be able to sniff out cancer 狗也許能嗅出癌症
◎ 魏國金
Dogs' keen sense of smell might help in the early diagnosis of cancer, researchers report in the current issue of Integrative Cancer Therapies. The findings show that trained ordinary household dogs can detect early-stage lung and breast cancers by merely sniffing the breath samples of patients.
研究人員在當期「整合癌症治療」期刊上報告指出，狗的敏銳嗅覺可能有助於癌症的早期診斷。研究顯示，受過訓練的普通家犬只需嗅聞病患的呼吸樣本，就能監測出初期的肺癌與乳癌。
"We've seen anecdotal evidence before suggesting that dogs can smell the presence of certain types of cancer," Michael McCulloch, from the Pine Street Foundation in San Anselmo, California said. "But until now, nobody had conducted a thorough study such as this."
「在指出狗能嗅出某類癌症之前，我們已見過趣聞式的證據，」加州聖安瑟莫的松街基金會的麥克．麥卡洛克說。
「但直到現在，沒有人進行過像這樣周密的研究。」
Researchers have observed that cancer cells release molecules different from those of their healthy counterparts, and that might be perceived by smell by the highly sensitive dog's nose.
研究人員已經觀察到癌細胞釋出的分子不同於健康細胞所釋出的分子，這些分子可能被高度敏銳的狗鼻子所察知。
For the study, five dogs were trained by a professional instructor to respond differently to exhaled breath samples of healthy and cancer patients. "The dogs learned to sit or lie down in front of cancer patient samples and to ignore control samples through the method of food reward," McCulloch explained.
在該研究中，5隻狗由一名專業教練訓練，能對健康者與癌症病患吐出的氣息樣本做出不同反應。麥卡洛克解釋說︰「透過食物獎勵的方法，狗兒學會在癌症病患的樣本前或坐或躺，而對控制組的樣本相應不理。」
The animals were given breath samples from 55 patients with lung cancer, 31 with breast cancer and 83 healthy controls. McCulloch's group found that the dogs were able to correctly distinguish the breath samples of cancer patients from the those of the control subjects in about 90 percent of the cases.
狗兒被給予55名肺癌病患、31名乳癌病患的氣息樣本，與83名控制組健康者的樣本。麥卡洛克的團隊發現，狗兒能正確分辨癌症患者與控制組氣息樣本的比率約達90%。
新聞辭典
sniff： 嗅、聞。sniff out可指發覺的意思。It's his job to sniff out abuses of power.（查究濫權是他的職責）。
anecdotal： 趣聞的、軼事的，anecdotal evidence 趣聞、軼事或傳聞般的證據，係藉由觀察或直覺聯想產生，非科學性證據。
distinguish： 區別，揚名。She distinguished herself as an African American lawyer. （她以身為美國黑人律師而揚名）。
