Our impact Our impact Canine Detection: New research into prostate cancer diagnosis In October 2024, Sir Chris Hoy talked openly about his terminal diagnosis with prostate cancer and raising awareness of the disease. Thanks to your donations, we’ve funded UHBW's research team to undertake vital medical research. They are on a mission to change the future of prostate cancer diagnosis for patients like Chris. Not just in Bristol and Weston, but across the UK. In September 2024, researchers tested 200 samples of urine. The aim is to enable early-stage prostate cancer diagnosis through a more accurate and less invasive urine sample, rather than the current blood test. CANINE CANCER DETECTION Sara Lee Spanggaard Krog, Norman Ratcliffe and Ignacio Deza are the UHBW researchers behind this ground-breaking project and were inspired by man’s best friend. They told us... “This project was inspired by the fact that dogs can detect prostate and bladder cancer by smelling urine. With funding from Bristol & Weston Hospitals Charity, we gathered a team of our best human experts to explore how we might use similar techniques to detect cancer in urine. “We tested two methods: Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy (NMR) and Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GCMS), to analyse the metabolites (chemicals) in urine. The results were promising with the tests achieving high accuracy in both screening and diagnosing prostate cancer. This suggests that these methods could be useful in real-world medical settings. “We also found that combining the GCMS urine data with the PSA blood test could improve prostate cancer detection. The PSA test alone has a high detection rate, but it’s not very specific. Another advantage of using urine instead of blood is that it’s less invasive and easier for patients. “Our approach - using detailed data processing, careful feature selection and robust testing - could be applied to other cancers as well. For example, we’ve also worked on using our technology to improve the detection of bladder cancer, and we plan to publish our findings soon. We are currently preparing papers on prostate cancer detection using urine NMR and GCMS, which we hope to publish in the next year or so. “We’re grateful to our canine friends for pointing us in the right direction and are continuing research and development to make our methods as effective as possible.” TAKE A PEAK INSIDE THE LAB These behind-the-scenes lab images capture Sara, Norman and Ignacio working with researchers from Loughborough University on this exciting project. THE FUTURE Inspired by these outstanding results, the team are continuing their research and development to further strengthen the data, with the aim of progressing the work into a medical trial. They are also going above and beyond by preparing scientific papers for publication in the British Cancer Journal (BCJ). Sharing their findings with the wider scientific community will help amplify the impact of this ground‑breaking research and has the potential to transform the future of prostate cancer diagnosis across the country. The first paper titled Prostate Cancer Classification Using Urine NMR Metabolomics, (BCJ, 2026, Ignacio Deza, Amit Bahl, Rajendra Persad, Ben de Lacy Costello, Natalia Drabińska, Paul White, James Reynolds, Norman Ratcliffe, Sara Lee Spanggaard Krog, Ausvydas Patasius et al.) and the second publication titled Classification of prostate cancer utilising GCMS for prostate cancer (BCJ, 2026, Ignacio Deza, Dr. Amit Bahl, Dr. Rajendra Persad, Ben de Lacy Costello, Natalia Drabińska, Paul White, James Reynolds, James Swift, Norman Ratcliffe, Sara Lee Spanggaard Krog, Aušvydas Patašius et al.) If you’d like to help support more projects like this, there are lots of ways you can get involved and help make a difference to your hospitals. Manage Cookie Preferences