Pennsylvania Woman Says Dog Detected Her Breast Cancer Before Doctors
Pennsylvania, US: A 31-year-old Pennsylvania woman claims that her dog detected her life-threatening breast cancer long before even she realised there was something wrong, reported the New York Post. Breanna Bortner first noticed her cockapoo called Mochi acting strangely in June 2023.
The dog became fixated on her right breast: sniffing, pawing, and pressing the area. Her sister-in-law’s cockapoo called Gunner also behaved the same way.
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Bortner had been experiencing fatigue over the past year but found no reason to suspect anything serious. One day, while scratching a mosquito bite near her breast, she felt a lump. When she put two and two together, she realised the reason behind Mochi’s behaviour and how she had heard stories of dogs detecting cancers through scent.
Bortner scheduled an appointment with a doctor and found out that she had stage 2B triple-negative invasive ductal carcinoma – an aggressive form of breast cancer that does not respond to typical hormonal treatments.
“It went from non-feel-able, non-detectable to a physical lump withing three months,” she said.
Breanna Bortner with Mochi (image/bravebeautifulboobies.com).
Bortner underwent 16 rounds of chemotherapy and a double mastectomy. She believes that Mochi’s keen sense of smell helped detect the cancer in time.
There have been several scientific studies that support the idea that dogs can detect cancer. A 2019 study revealed that trained dogs were able to identify blood samples from cancer patients with 97 percent accuracy.
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Dogs have successfully detected various types of cancer including prostate, breast, cervical, and lung cancer – in many cases much earlier than traditional medical tests.
Last spring, Bortner received the news that she was cancer-free. And Moochi was right there to celebrate with her!
