Prostate Cancer K9MD Research Success
New Zealand trained K9 German shepherd Frieda (Index von Heisenberg) has successfully completed the Proof-of-Concept stage in detecting prostate cancer in saline down to as low as 5.0 percent ratio.
K9 Medical Detection NZ, (K9MD) believes this is the way forward for early detection, to offer New Zealand men an easy, non-invasive screening and surveillance opportunity for prostate cancer. This would be a value-added tool to help protect men’s health, enable earlier instigation of treatment and potentially lead to improved patient outcomes.
In September 2021 K9MD carried out a Proof-of-Concept Validation for canine detection of prostate cancer in saline with Frieda. The validation consisted of 200 samples and was completed over five consecutive days under strict guidelines and conditions. An independent observer was present during the entire testing process to verify the process and ensure blind (the trainer does not know whether the samples are positive or negative) testing conditions were maintained throughout. The results were recorded into a specific software programme and analysed by K9MD’s Biostatistician.
Using various concentration ratios from 100% down to 5% for the validation, K9MD Frieda successfully detected positive prostate cancer samples 100 per cent of the time and ignored samples that did not contain cancer 100 per cent of the time. Since validation Frieda is now detecting positive prostate cancer samples as low as 2.5 percent.
K9 Medical Detection NZ CEO Pauline Blomfield was ecstatic and paid tribute to K9MD trainer Courtney Moore and the entire K9MD team, for their hard work and commitment to achieving such phenomenal results.
“The use of highly trained medical detection canines will help decrease the need for any extra invasive tests and it will help increase the efficiency of the health system” Blomfield says. “With Frieda’s solid odour imprinting of the specific volatile organic compounds released from prostate cancer K9MD could continue with the second stage using patient urine samples, however this would require further funding.”