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Dogs are turning out to be an even better friend to man than we could have imagined. They can spot cancer early, even ?before symptoms appear, through their magnificently sensitive noses. Yes, pretty amazing.
事实证明，狗狗是人类的好朋友，比我们想象的更好。它们能用极为敏感的鼻子发现早期的癌症--甚至在癌症症状出现之前。是的，真的很了不起。
Now, for the first time, a proper investigation is being set up by doctors Clare Guest and John Church, of the charity Medical Detection Dogs, to investigate this canine skill and its use in prostate cancer detection.
现在，Medical Detection Dogs慈善机构的克莱尔·盖斯特和约翰·丘奇医生开始了正当调查，以研究这种犬科技术及其在前列腺癌检测中的应用。
Shockingly, prostate cancer now kills more people than breast cancer and the disease's UK mortality rates have increased by 21% since the early 1970s. Experts say medical detection dogs can identify the "smell" of the disease.
令人震惊的是，现在因前列腺癌去世的人数比因乳腺癌去世的人数更多，自20世纪70年代初期至今，该疾病在英国的死亡率增加了21%。专家表示医疗侦测犬可以识别该疾病的'气味'。
This could spare many men the need to undergo unnecessary invasive tests. Dogs' sense of smell is 40 times more powerful than ours and can detect odours at a concentration of one part per trillion. This means they can pick up the scent of different diseases at the earliest stage.
因此，很多男性就省去了做侵入性试验的必要。狗狗对该气味的感知比人类强40倍，可以检测出浓度为万亿分之一的气味。这就意味着它们能闻到不同疾病在初期阶段的气味。
The charity's 31 dogs are being trained to detect diseases that range from malaria to Parkinson's, but prostate cancer is their main focus. Since 2015, Medical Detection Dogs has been working on prostate cancer detection with Milton Keynes University Hospital NHS Trust. "We hope within a couple of years it will confirm previous studies we have conducted that suggest dogs have a 93% success rate," says Dr Guest.
该慈善机构的31只狗狗正在接受训练，以检测疟疾、帕金森等疾病，但前列腺癌是它们的主要任务。自2015年起，Medical Detection Dogs一直在与米尔顿凯恩斯大学医院英国国民健康体系基金（Milton Keynes University Hospital NHS Trust）合作开展前列腺癌检测。"我们希望能在几年内证实先前所开展研究的准确性：表明狗狗的成功率为93%，"盖斯特医生说道。
If proven it would put the PSA test in the shade. Three out of four men who have a PSA test receive a positive result but don't have cancer. Nonetheless, they may have a needle inserted into their prostate unnecessarily. This wouldn't need to happen using dogs.
如果能证明它的性能优于前列腺特异性抗原测试。四分之三进行前列腺特异性抗原测试的男性是阳性结果，但他们并没有得癌症。尽管如此，一根针还是插入了他们的前列腺，而这是不必要的。如果用狗狗侦测的话，这种情况就不会发生。
The clinical trial uses anonymous urine samples - some healthy, some cancerous - in glass pots sent from Milton Keynes University Hospital. Each pot is put on a 'carousel' - a stainless steel mechanism with eight arms. "We've trained the dogs to walk around the carousel before stopping and sitting by a sample they sniff cancer in," explains Dr Guest.
临床试验使用匿名尿液样本--有些健康、有些患癌--从米尔顿凯恩斯大学医院寄来，放置于玻璃罐中。每一个玻璃罐都被放在一个'转盘'上--有着8个支臂的不锈钢装置。"我们已训练了狗狗围着转盘走动，直到它们闻到了有癌症的玻璃罐就可以停下来坐着了。"
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