José Luís García, canine guide of the National Police and trainer of the dogs of this project, has gone through the program Hoy por hoy Cantabria to tell us what phase the Biodogtor project.
To begin the investigation, 140 dogs for a year and ten have been selected, of which five are for the detection of lung cancer and the other five for colon cancer.
García, has stressed that it is the “World’s Largest Animal Cancer Early Detection Study” and hopes that the first results can be obtained in June, but has recognized that “you have to adjust to training because they are dogs and not machines.”
At the moment the reduced funds With those they have, they force to focus for the moment on the detection of lung cancer and for this they already train five dogs daily in Marina de Cudeyo.
The Head of the Oncology Service at Hospital Valdecilla, Fernando Rivera has explained that this initiative was born “two or three years ago” of the canine trainers of the police and has affirmed that the dogs have a “very powerful” sense of smell that “could also help to detect cancer”.
“There were already data and experiences, but they were not well structured,” said the head of the Oncology service, who pointed out that the first step it has been to design a standardized training for dogs and, once the dog is trained, “it has to be shown whether or not they are really correct when it comes to distinguishing if someone has cancer.”
Rivera has indicated that the investigation is “about to begin” and has explained that if they are correct above 90 percent, it will be estimated that it is a reliable method.
The oncologist has indicated that the next step, if the method detects cancer early, would be “integrate it into prevention strategies” and in the future, apply canine tests to people to make a scan if they are positive and if they have a tumor, apply previous less aggressive treatments.
In order to obtain funds to continue with the project for the clinical trial for early detection of cancer, Cantabria Leaders has promoted a solidarity calendar that has edited Santander City Council and in which Cantabrian artists from different disciplines and their pets have participated.
The cultural manager Carmen Quijano She has been in charge of the design as well as posing with her pet for the calendar, which also includes the cartoonist Ana Miralles, the singer-songwriter Mehnai, the actor and theater director Fernando Rebanal, the stage director Francisco Valcarce and the sculptor José Cobo.
Other images feature the set designer and illuminator, José Helguera, the photographer and musician Juan G Negrete, the violinist Luisa Bahíllo, the writer Menchú Gutiérrez, the painter Rafael Muro and the poet Regino Mateo.
The photographers Who made the images are Emilio Ruiz, Belén Benito, Javier de la Riva, Marko, Juan G. Negrete, Raúl Lucio, Julia Rico Ortega, Luis Otí, Roberto Anguita, Pedro Pertejo, Santiago Sagredo and Javier Lamela.
The representatives of Líderes Cantabria have indicated that the culture “Right now it is one of the sectors most affected” by the pandemic, and they have highlighted that the criteria for selecting the people who have participated in this initiative have been that they were linked to art and culture, that they had a dog and that they had a balance between the different artistic disciplines.
The solidarity calendars can be purchased from this Monday at El Corte Inglés for ten euros.
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