Snippets - dogs for diagnosis, and the engine of obesity?
Not really pharmaceutical, but perhaps of more general interest. A controlled study in today's BMJ has generated widespread media interest, and readers might like a pointer to the original paper. In essence, the authors carried a 'proof of concept' study to demonstrate that it was feasible for dogs to be able to detect cancer by smell of body fluids. They used bladder cancer as an example, and six randomly selected dogs who were trained to discriminate between urine from patients with bladder cancer and that from various controls, both healthy and with other potentially confounding conditions. In a robustly constructed blinded trial, the dogs were able to detect the samples from patients with a probability much greater than chance; the investigators note that during training, the dogs detected a previously unsuspected kidney tumour in a presumed healthy control. The authors comment that their study proves the concept, and suggest ways in which it could be developed and tested further to the point of potential clinical usefulness.
An interesting 'Debate' article looks at some of the possible reasons for the increase in obesity. The authors identify a number of suggested 'accelerators' and 'brakes' of obesity acting in an obesogenic environment, and suggest reasons why, in our current situation, the brakes may be less effective than the accelerators.
Canine diagnosticians: BMJ 2004; 329: 712-7; BBC News report
the engine of obesity: BMJ 2004; 329: 736-9
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