Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, with reference to the Answer of 26 November 2014 to Question 215220, what information his Department holds on further research on the use of dogs to detect cancer.

The National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Clinical Research Network is recruiting to a study of canine olfactory detection of human urological cancer from the odour of human urine samples. The study is funded by the charity Medical Detection Dogs.

The NIHR is funding a programme of systematic reviews to determine the accuracy of tests for the diagnosis and staging of skin cancer. The report from this programme is expected to be published in December 2017. One of the ongoing reviews funded within the programme is on canine odour detection for the diagnosis of cutaneous melanoma in adults.