Don't Kiss Me With That Cancer Breath

Worried that you might have cancer? After your dog is finished sniffing the ass of your neighbor's dog, have him sniff your breath. A new study finds that dogs are excellent cancer detectors.

The New York Times reported Jan. 17 that researchers from the Pine Street Foundation in Marin County, Calif., said they trained five dogs to detect the alkanes and benzene chemicals exuded by lung-cancer cells with 99-percent accuracy. Other studies have shown that dogs can detect skin cancer and possibly bladder cancer.The success rate of the California dogs "is off the charts: there are no laboratory tests as good as this, not Pap tests, not diabetes tests, nothing," said Donald Berry, chair of the biostatistics program at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.Lead researcher Michael McCulloch also tested dogs' ability to detect breast cancer and found them to be accurate 88 percent of the time.

So, snuggle up with your dog tonight. But, not your cat, because they steal your breath while you sleep.