We all know dogs have senses that are far more highly attuned than our own, but one North Carolina couple has had an incredible experience with their canine’s abilities: He detected both of their cancer diagnoses, years apart.
Dogs are so highly attuned to sniffing out ill health in humans that they are even used in clinical settings and as home health monitors. Chase Johnson and her husband Ben Byrn’s story shows just how incredible and life-saving these dogs’ abilities can be.
A woman’s dog detected her cancer diagnosis years after doing the same for her husband.
The list of diseases and conditions that dogs seem to be able to smell on us humans is lengthier than you might guess, from multiple types of cancer to diabetes, migraines, Parkinson’s disease, seizures, and even malaria.
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For Chase Johnson, a North Carolina attorney, her Labrador retriever mix Ceto’s highly attuned sniffer turned out to be a literal life-saver. Recently, she noticed that Ceto seemed to be behaving strangely, whimpering more than usual, and acting anxious around her.
Her dog had detected an aggressive form of breast cancer, saving her life.
Speaking to UK media outlet SWNS, Johnson said Ceto’s anxious behavior was far from ordinary. “Ceto had always been my little shadow,” she said. “We are very much bonded together.” Now, suddenly, he was constantly anxious around her.
Soon, his behavior escalated to poking her in the chest with his nose, and when Johnons examined herself, sure enough, she found a lump. She immediately booked a doctor’s appointment that ended up being a life-saver.
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She was soon diagnosed with an aggressive type of cancer called triple-negative breast cancer, which lacks receptors for three main hormones that make it ineligible for hormonal therapies often used for breast cancers.
Instead, Johnson had to undergo chemotherapy, radiotherapy, a lumpectomy, and lymph node removal, all of which saved her life. But it was hard won. Multiple doctors refused to take Johnson seriously due to her only being 36 and “too young” for cancer. It was Ceto’s prior history at detection that finally swayed one of them to examine her.
Her dog’s detection of her husband’s cancer years before finally made doctors listen.
After Johnson’s insistence, it was Ceto’s previous track record that ultimately got her a doctor’s appointment, as absurd as that is. As he became more and more anxious, she and her husband Ben began to notice Ceto’s behavior was uncomfortably similar to when he had correctly detected Ben’s colon cancer a few years prior.
When she was refused an exam by a second doctor, “I told her how Ceto had alerted my husband to the fact that he had cancer, so she agreed to send me for a mammogram.” After her treatments, she is now completely cancer-free.
She credits Ceto and, just as important, her own persistence with saving her life. “If I didn’t have Ceto, and if I didn’t have that past experience with my husband, I might not be here,” she told SWNS, especially since her doctor told her if she’d waited much longer for her exam, it likely would have been too late.
“You have to be your own advocate,” she went on to say. “I was told by experts that I was too young and cancer didn’t hurt – then I received this diagnosis.” Ceto’s smarts and Johnson’s persistence might end up saving more lives down the line, too. She is now participating in a clinical trial at the Cleveland Clinic for a preventive cancer vaccine that has very optimistic prospects.
John Sundholm is a writer, editor, and video personality with 20 years of experience in media and entertainment. He covers culture, mental health, and human interest topics.
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