It turns out that Frankie was nine out of ten times accurate when determining whether the urine was negative or positive for cancer! That's amazing that a dog can be that accurate, but frankly it doesn't surprise me due to a pooch's incredible sense of smell. You must read more about Frankie and the research team for cancer below:

According to the research team, from the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) in Little Rock, Frankie – a male German Shepherd-mix – is the first dog that has been trained to differentiate benign thyroid disease and thyroid cancer by sniffing human urine samples.

He notes many current methods for diagnosing thyroid cancer can be inaccurate, causing some patients to undergo needless surgery.

Frankie trained to sniff out cancer in human urine samples

For their study, recently presented at The Endocrine Society's 97th Annual Meeting in San Diego, CA, Dr. Bodenner and colleagues obtained urine samples from 34 patients who attended the UAMS thyroid clinic.

Frankie alerted the handler to a cancer-positive urine sample by lying down, while turning away from the urine sample alerted the handler to a benign status.

The authors note that the cancer status of each urine sample was unknown to both the dog handler and the study coordinator.

30 out of 34 samples correctly identified with canine scent detection

On comparing Frankie's results with those of the final surgical pathology report for the samples, the team found the dog correctly identified the status of 30 out of 34 samples.

Frankie correctly identified a benign sample almost 9 in every 10 times.

The researchers now plan to expand their research by teaming up with Auburn University College of Veterinary Medicine, AL, who have agreed to assign two of its bomb-sniffing dogs to thyroid cancer detection training.

This amazing story of Frankie, the German Shepherd mix on Medical News Today, is just one example of pooches that can help research teams with breakthrough cancer treatments. If researchers continue to train dogs to help them detect other types of cancers, imagine how helpful our canine friends can be!

It's amazing to think that one-day multiple doggies can be helping research teams not only detect cancer in people, but also detect effective treatments and ways to help heal cancer. You never know what could be possible!