Frankie the dog 'sniffs out thyroid cancer'
A dog has been used to sniff out thyroid cancer in people who had not
yet been diagnosed, US researchers say.
Tests on 34 patients showed an 88% success rate in finding tumours. The
team presenting their findings at the annual meeting of the Endocrine Society
said the animal had an "unbelievable" sense of smell. Cancer Research UK
said using dogs would be impractical but discovering the chemicals the dogs
can smell could lead towards new tests. The thyroid is a gland in the neck that
produces hormones to regulate metabolism. Thyroid tumours are relatively
rare and are normally diagnosed by testing hormone levels in the blood and
by using a needle to extract cells for testing.
Cancers are defective, out-of-control cells. They have their own unique
chemistry and release "volatile organic compounds" into the body. The canine
approach relies on dogs having 10 times the number of smell receptors as
people and being able to pick out the unique smells being released by
cancers. Dogs have already produced promising results in patients with bowel
and lung cancers.
Frankie the dog gave the correct diagnosis in 30 out of 34 cases. The next
step was to see if it could be used as a diagnostic test.
Claire-Marie Rozario
Critical Thinking
08/03/15
Big Firms Forced to Reveal Gender Pay Gap
Companies will have to publish the difference in earnings after only five
out of 7,000 firms offered the information voluntarily.
The Government has agreed to implement the Liberal Democrat measure despite
years of conservative party opposition to it. The move will mean companies
employing more than 250 people will be required to publish the gap between
average pay for their male and female workers. Over 10 million people across the
UK are currently working at firms covered by the legislation .The current approach,
which is voluntary, has seen only five out of around 7,000 large companies publish
their gender pay gap.
A Government spokesman said: "Under this Government, the gender pay gap is the
lowest ever and has virtually been eliminated for those working full time under 40.”
The move comes as the head of the UN agency promoting equality for women said
not a single country has reached gender parity.
UN Women executive director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka made the comments 20
years after a groundbreaking conference in Beijing where 189 nations adopted a
blueprint to achieve equality for women. Ms Mlambo-Ngcuka said that although
progress had been made since Beijing, there are still fewer than 20 female heads of
Claire-Marie Rozario
Critical Thinking
08/03/15
state and government. She said that the number of female politicians increased from
11% to just 22% in the past 20 years.
Claire-Marie Rozario
Critical Thinking
08/03/15