Cancer Survivor’s Puppies to Train as BioScentDX Cancer Detection Dogs
MYAKKA CITY, Fla. – Cancer survivor Brittany Zuber is providing others with the gift of early detection. At 26, the young mother was diagnosed with stage 2 breast cancer. On March 1, the 29-year-old will gift two basset hound puppies to BioScentDX, a Florida-based company performing promising work in the area of canine scent-based cancer detection.
“I learned about BioScentDX when their researcher reached out to me on my Benton Basset Hounds Facebook page, not knowing that I was a cancer survivor myself,” said Zuber, who began breeding hounds in 2017. Founded in 2016, BioScentDX provides simple, affordable cancer screenings using breath samples, which are mailed back to the company and presented to specially trained cancer scent detection dogs for screening of leading cancers including breast, lung, colorectal, prostate and melanoma. Results are mailed to the participant within 30 days. In January the company was issued an IRB renewal for a first-of-its-kind human study to determine the efficacy of using canines’ scent ability to detect breast cancer in women.
“For someone my age, getting insurance to pay for a mammogram was impossible,” said Zuber, who was eventually diagnosed through ultrasound and biopsy. “This is an affordable option for a woman who doesn’t have insurance or whose insurance won’t cover a mammogram, and can provide peace of mind between yearly screenings when cancer sometimes returns.”
BioScentDX co-founder and lead researcher Heather Junqueira will raise and oversee training of Zuber’s pups, who will regularly report to the company’s canine-friendly research facility in Myakka City, Florida.
“We’re so grateful to Brittany for her generosity, and I’m confident her puppies will be a tremendous asset to our researchers and to cancer patients nationwide,” said Junquiera, who currently utilizes scent services from 24 beagles. “Our trained dogs have proven that they can detect cancer in its earliest, most treatable stage, and it’s our goal to see many more success stories from courageous young women like Brittany, who have faced cancer and beat it.”
Zuber will gift the dogs to Junqueira in Little Rock when they appear together March 1 on KATV Channel 7’s “Good Afternoon Arkansas” segment, airing at 3 p.m. CST. The station has followed Zuber’s story from diagnosis through reconstruction. Junqueira and the dogs are being flown courtesy of Sarasota-based Universal Flight Services. For photo opportunities or to schedule an interview with Zuber, Janqueira and the puppies in Little Rock March 1, contact Melanie Hill at (615) 498-5946 or melanie.hill@comcast.net.
About BioScentDX:
BioScentDX is utilizing canine scent detection to offer a non-invasive screening method for cancers and similar life-threatening diseases. Through research and development of these capabilities, BioScentDX offers patients a cost-effective, simple, yet highly accurate method to identify and eradicate diseases. For more information, visit www.bioscentdx.com, or their non-profit organization, sniffingoutcancer.org.
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