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Dina is in the forefront of medical scent detection training.
She has trained the dogs for federally funded studies. In 2003 she assisted in dog training 5 dogs to detect early stage lung and breast cancer with 99% accuracy (sensitivity). The study is published in the Journal of Integrative Cancer Therapies.
Dina Zaphiris, Founder and CEO of In Situ Foundation, has been training dogs for over 30 years. She has specialized in Medical Scent detection, Missing Persons detection, and Bomb and Narcotics detection dogs.
Dina Zaphiris is a pioneer and leader in the field of canine bio-detection, and has trained over 50 dogs to detect cancer for federally funded, as well as privately funded studies. Her work has generated interest from the top universities in the world, including University of California, Davis, and Duke University.
In Situ Foundation’s mission is to use shelter/rescue dogs whenever possible.
In Situ utilizes teams of dogs for each clinical trial. It’s important to have a team of dogs sniffing each sample, not just one dog. We have trained over 50 dogs in 12 years to detect cancer, including a group of e.coli detection dogs.
In Situ had it’s own team of three dogs, and dogs for subsequent studies have been volunteered from the public to participate in different clinical trials. All of our dogs have loving pet homes, but they go to work during the day, just like a police dog would. Dogs love their work, and our dogs would rather work than do anything else.
We adopt dogs and give them loving homes, so what could have been a dog on death row, is now being trained to save human lives. Two of In Situ’s German Shepherds were rescued from death row, and almost all of the dogs in the program have been rescued. All dogs are “super sniffers”, so we do not believe in breeding them, or creating a “super sniffer” breed. People generally don’t understand how powerful a tool these cancer scenting dogs are. Not only are they 98% accurate, but they’re also capable of early detection.
Radiography (X-Ray) under diagnoses cancer, where the MRI over-diagnoses, or gives false positives, resulting in biopsy and unnecessary surgeries. There is no current screening for lung cancer that makes sense, and that’s where the dogs fit in.
Dina’s goal is to open a low cost or free cancer screening facility, where these cancer scenting dogs could save many lives. That is her dream. The study is also leading scientists to the development of the mechanical nose, which will try to mimic the capabitlities of the dog nose. One day, you will simply blow into a tube, and by the gas chromatography, a machine will be able to detect if you have “cancer on your breath”. But, so far, only the wonderful dog can do that. Nothing comes close to the power of a dogs nose. It always knows. See more at https://dogsdetectcancer.org/
In Situ Foundation has spent thousands of hours, spanning many years, developing the scientific protocols that are needed to train cancer detection dogs and their handlers.
WE USE SAMPLES COLLECTED BY DOCTORS, WHICH ARE SENT TO US AND STORED IN AN -80 DEGREE MEDICAL FREEZER.
It takes over 300 samples to train one dog. All of our dogs are trained on cancer samples, healthy control samples, and disease control samples. It takes anywhere between 6 to 8 months to train and certify a cancer detection dog. Our dogs must also be friendly and social, since they will work with people. Dogs do not sniff an actual person — they sniff samples such as breath, plasma, urine and sputum (saliva), in a laboratory setting.
Dogs are presented with a known cancer sample for training, and they are rewarded for being able to determine the cancer sample from the healthy samples. Over time, the odor of “cancer” is generalized, which is of extreme importance when training a medical scent detection dog. A very large number of samples are used, and we never re-use a sample for training or testing our dogs accuracy levels.
All accuracy levels were attained by doing “double-blinded” trials, where brand new samples are numbered, and the dog is able to find all of the new, different cancer samples among brand new healthy controls and disease controls. This way, we can be sure the dog has “generalized” the “cancer odor”, and is not merely memorizing samples.
Dogs work in a laboratory setting, which is like a giant playroom for them.
They are always happy to work, and they don’t want to stop when we are done. This is due to their training. We use positive reinforcement, clicker training, ball, treats, love, petting and play, as rewards for finding the cancer sample. What dog wouldn’t want to do that? When your dog “knows” you’re getting ready to take a walk, that’s how our dogs act when it’s time to “work”. Work to our dogs equals play, so they are having a total blast, while making major transformations to the field of medicine
WHY WE DO THIS
Cancer remains the second most common cause of death in the US, accounting for nearly 1 of every 4 deaths (American Cancer Society). There are no accurate screening methods for the early detection of most types of cancer. Screening methods that exist today are costly, invasive, and produce a high amount of false positives
False positives for cancer occur when a screening test finds something that looks like cancer, but turns out to be benign (not cancer). Some screening methods even cause more harm than good.
The more mammograms a woman has, the more likely she is to have a false positive result that will require follow up tests. Studies have shown the chances of having a false positive result after 10 yearly mammograms are about 50 to 60 percent. (See more at: http://ww5.komen.org/BreastCancer/)
In regards to prostate cancer, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) recommends AGAINST prostate-specific antigen (PSA)-based screenings for prostate cancer.
The benefits of PSA-based screening for prostate cancer do not outweigh the negatives.
The high likelihood of false-positive results from a PSA test, coupled with its inability to distinguish indolent from aggressive tumors, means that a substantial number of men undergo biopsy and are over-diagnosed with and over-treated for prostate cancer.
Dogs can be trained to detect early stage cancer in humans, and research has shown that dogs are more accurate than the screening methods that are currently being used to detect cancer.
Dogs have a high sensitivity and specificity, which means that dogs do not give the high false positive rates that modern day screenings give. False positives cause unnecessary biopsies, treatment, and worry.
In 2006, our study which was published in the Journal of Integrative Cancer Therapies, a medical journal, our dogs were proven at 99% sensitivity in the early detection of lung cancer, and 88% sensitive in the early detection of breast cancer. This is more accurate than a needle biopsy. (Integrative Cancer Therapies (March 2006, Vol. 5, No. 1)
Dogs can provide a low cost, non-invasive, highly accurate early detection method for cancer. Dogs can transform the practice of medicine, expanding the assessment of disease from three senses to four senses, and provide a whole new perspective for future technologic breakthroughs.
For our work published in the Oxford Journal of Medicine, see: Open Forum Infect Dis. 2016 Mar 9;3(2):ofw051. doi: 10.1093/ofid/ofw051
Maurer M, McCulloch M, Willey AM, Hirsch W, Dewey D. Detection of Bacteriuria by Canine Olfaction. Open Forum Infect Dis. 2016 Mar 9;3(2):ofw051. doi: 10.1093/ofid/ofw051. PMID: 27186578; PMCID: PMC4866566.
For our work published in the Journal of Integrative Cancer Therapies, see:
Integrative Cancer Therapies (March 2006, Vol. 5, No. 1)