Subsequent to scent training, dogs were able to accurately detect lung and breast cancer in previously diagnosed patients versus a control group in experiments. This research demonstrates the potential for diagnosing breast and lung cancer by identifying chemical compounds.

Exploratory work in the area of breast and lung cancers has shown that patterns of biochemicals markers have been found in the exhaled breaths of patients versus a control group. Based on these findings, researchers utilized a food-based reward method of training 5 dogs to distinguish between the breath of lung/breast cancer patients and a control group. Once trained, dog were able to detect these cancers with remarkable accuracy.