The hypothesis that dogs can detect malignant tumours through the identification of specific molecules is nearly 30 years old. To date, several reports have described the successful detection of distinct types of cancer. However, is still a lack of data regarding the specific molecules that can be recognized by a dog's olfactory apparatus. Hence, we performed a study with artificially prepared, well-characterized urinary specimens that were enriched with sarcosine, a widely reported urinary biomarker for prostate cancer (PCa). For the purposes of the study, a German shepherd dog was utilized for analyses of 60 positive and 120 negative samples. Our study provides the first evidence that a sniffer dog specially trained for the olfactory detection of PCa can recognize sarcosine in artificial urine with a performance [sensitivity of 90%, specificity of 95%, and precision of 90% for the highest amount of sarcosine (10 µmol/L)] that is comparable to the identification of PCa-diagnosed subjects (sensitivity of 93.5% and specificity of 91.6%). This study casts light on the unrevealed phenomenon of PCa olfactory detection and opens the door for further studies with canine olfactory detection and cancer diagnostics.

Central European Institute of Technology Brno University of Technology Technicka 3058 10 CZ 616 00 Brno Czech Republic

Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry Mendel University in Brno Zemedelska 1 CZ 613 00 Brno Czech Republic

Department of Urology University Hospital Brno Jihlavska 20 Brno CZ 625 00 Czech Republic

Faculty of Medicine Masaryk University Kamenice 5 CZ 625 00 Brno Czech Republic

Small Animal Clinic Faculty of Veterinary Medicine University of Veterinary and Pharmaceutical Sciences Brno Palackeho 1 CZ 612 42 Brno Czech Republic

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