Mar 20, 2006 11:00 pm US/Eastern
Health: Sniffing Out Cancer
by Stephanie Stahl
PHILADELPHIA (CBS 3) ―
Medical Reporter Stephanie Stahl reports on a unique way of finding breast cancer.
Toby Krueger and her dog Dillon have a special kind of bond that goes way beyond loyalty and friendship.
"He saved my life," she said.
The odyssey started four years ago when Toby's annual mammogram showed a benign cyst. Her doctor said it was nothing and should simply be watched.
Krueger said that was when Dillon started doing something strange.
"He would just bang himself into my left side slam into me. He was basically telling me that something was going on," she said.
Feeling unsettled by the dog's behavior, the 59-year-old Langhorne woman refused to wait. She found a new doctor and insisted on a biopsy.
"She needed that biopsy done to have peace of mind and in the end she ended up finding out that her inner voice was telling her something correctly," said Dr. Beth Dupree.
Dr. Dupree, a breast surgeon at St Mary's, said the dog was onto something because Krueger had breast cancer.
She said there is no concrete science on why, but maybe some dogs do have a certain sense.
"I can't say her dog's a better diagnostician than were, are medically, but there's something between the connection between those two that is unexplainable by any other means," said Dr. Dupree.
Dillon is an eight-year-old Australian Shepherd that has had no special training, just a devotion to Krueger.
Krueger ended up having a mastectomy and Dillon immediately stopped slamming into her chest.
Now Krueger said she has learned to ignore the skeptics.
"Even my oldest son thinks I'm crazy. Oh it didn't happen you know, but it did if he didn't do what he did, I would have listened to the surgeon and not had anything done," she said.
Experts believe it is probably the sense of smell that gives some dogs the ability to detect human ailments, but researchers do not know exactly why or how it happens.
For some it is believed to be a special bond that science can't explain.
(© MMVI, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
