As of: February 28, 2024, 5:00 a.m
By: Anna Katharina Kuesters
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The start-up Dogscan has set itself a high goal: it wants to detect lung cancer as early as possible with the help of dogs.
Even a hard blow of fate can produce new ideas and innovations.
This is shown by the example of Alexander Maßen from Mönchengladbach.
He lost his father to lung cancer.
Lung cancer is still a type of cancer that doctors often only detect by chance in its early stages during preventive examinations.
However, early detection is important because it enormously increases the chances of recovery for those affected.
Alexander Maßen wants to change that after his father's death and develop a method that can easily and safely detect lung cancer even in its early stages.
He tries it with his business partner Florian Wienen and their start-up Dogscan.
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The result comes within two weeks
A trained dog nose can save lives.
(Symbolic image) © Shotshop/Imago
Florian Wienen is an absolute dog professional.
As a dog trainer, he teaches his four-legged friends manners through play and fun and has been doing so for many years.
As a trainer for explosives detection dogs and service dog handlers, he learned that dogs can perform miracles, especially with the help of their noses.
Maßen and Wienen met while dog training Maßen's young puppy.
The two men started talking and became friends.
When Alexander talked about his father's death from lung cancer, the idea of Dogscan arose over time.
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The idea behind it: Dogs should sniff used masks and thus determine whether the person who wore the mask has lung cancer.
Boxes containing such a mask can be ordered from Dogscan.
The test person wears it for five minutes and then sends it back to the company.
Trained dogs then sniff the masks and within two weeks the test subjects have a result on the table at home.
In the best case scenario, the costs of this test should be covered by health insurance so that everyone can afford this type of lung cancer screening, Florian Wienen tells the
Neue Ruhr Zeitung
.
However, so far this is only a plan and not yet reality.
Lung cancer prevention has so far been difficult
For types of cancer such as breast cancer or prostate cancer, regular check-ups are mandatory medical appointments for every person from a certain age onwards.
However, according to the German Cancer Society,
these preventive examinations do not exist for lung cancer
.
Lung cancer only causes pain and problems at a very late stage.
At this point, healing is almost impossible.
However, if the cancer were detected at a very early stage, the chances of recovery would be very good.
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There are various reasons why lung cancer prevention has been so poor so far.
On the one hand, blood tests are too unreliable, and on the other hand, the benefits of screening using X-rays, for example, have not yet been proven.
Every X-ray examination also means exposure to radiation, which people should not expose themselves to in excessive doses.
The start-up Dogscan now wants to close this supply gap with its four-legged sniffing cancer experts.
Dog noses are true miracles
Dogs can not only sniff out lung cancer, but are also absolute nose experts in many other areas.
In addition to searching for drugs and mines, they were also used to detect people infected with Covid.
They also help diabetics, for example: among other things, the dogs sniff out dangerous fluctuations in blood sugar levels and can then sound the alarm.
But dog noses are not only used in the medical and military sectors.
The Lagotto Romagnolo dog breed, for example, is known for its good truffle nose.
The animals like to dig the valuable black mushroom out of the ground and deliver the delicacy to their masters.
You can find out what tricks dogs can learn here.