Does This DOG Know Whether You Have CANCER?

The canine nose is a marvel of nature. Science believes that a computerized model will save millions of lives.

- By Adam Piore. Photographs by Jason Varney

Osa, an athletic 62-pound German shepherd with a long fluffy tail and a fondness for red bandannas, seems an unlikely superhero.

She chews on the couch when she’s bored and isn’t above making a scene to get attention. On a recent day when her foster mother and trainer Anne­marie DeAngelo stepped outside their New Jersey home while chatting with a visitor, Osa bounded up and barked for attention; when that failed, she leaped onto the patio table, stuck her snout in DeAngelo’s face, and began whining.

“You are unbelievable,” DeAngelo growled before cracking a smile.

But if Osa wants to play the diva, she’s entitled. After all, how many six-year-old pooches do you know who have mastered the art of sniffing out cancerous tumors and are involved in a research project that has the potential to revolutionize oncology?

Despite the remarkable success of immunotherapy, CRISPR gene editing, and other recent breakthrough treatments, oncologists’ inability to detect some cancers in their early stages remains one of the field’s most ­intractable—and fatal—shortcomings. One disheartening case in point: of the estimated 21,750 women in the United States expected to be diagnosed this year with ovarian cancer, a disease that is treatable when found early, almost 14,000 are likely to die from it.