Cancer-sniffing dogs get AI help in India

An Indian startup is using AI to analyse how trained dogs react to human breath samples, part of an experimental effort to develop a non-invasive cancer screening test.

Bengaluru-based Dognosis fits dogs with sensor-packed helmets and harnesses that record brain activity, respiration and body language as the animals sniff samples. The company says the system turns dogs' responses to scent into data.

The testing method asks a patient to breathe into a cotton mask for about 10 minutes. The mask is then sealed in a bag and taken to a lab, where dogs test the sample without meeting the patient.

Dognosis co-founder Akash Kulgod said the startup hopes to launch commercially next year. The company is collaborating with government medical institutions and says it is backed by venture-capital firms including Accel India.

A recent Dognosis study of more than 1,500 participants at six hospitals in Karnataka state was published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. The company said it achieved an accuracy rate of more than 90 percent across seven major types of cancer and now plans to test the approach in real-world programmes.

Independent cancer specialists in Bengaluru urged caution. Santhosh Kumar Devadas, head of oncology at Ramaiah Memorial Hospital, called the study “promising” as an early signal but said a much larger study was needed before definitive conclusions. Neelesh Reddy, a senior consultant oncologist at Manipal Hospitals, said only time would tell how useful the technology would be for patients.

Research suggests diseases can alter chemicals released by the body, creating distinctive odours. Dogs have around 300 million scent receptors, compared with about five million in humans.

Dognosis says it has 15 dogs in training, including Chloe, a Labrador mix. Co-founder Itamar Bitan said the dogs are trained with positive reinforcement to detect a specific smell for a reward.