Our Favorite Cancer Stories of 2021

The idea of using dogs’ noses to detect the scent of human cancer has been around for decades, and researchers have even tried building machines to do the job, but none have been able to match the sensitivity of man’s best friend. Rather than try to compete with evolution, scientists decided to bring in the experts. In a proof-of-concept study, researchers used dogs to train a machine learning algorithm to detect prostate cancer, the second most common cancer in men. Because the study included a small number of samples—from 50 men, of whom only 12 had a positive biopsy—the dogs didn’t achieve the sensitivity and specificity that other canines have been able to, but it’s a promising first step, according to Marc Aubreville, a professor of image understanding and medical application of artificial intelligence at Germany’s Technische Hochschule Ingolstadt, who wasn’t involved in the work. “It’s really interdisciplinary what they’re ...