Dogs are certainly man's best friend. Besides keeping us safe by sniffing bombs and illegal drugs, they also prove themselves useful in the world of medicine, including detecting diseases like thyroid cancer.

A team at the University of Arkansas in Little Rock said a German Shepherd named Frankie can accurately sniff out cases of thyroid cancer when presented with patients' urine samples.

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For their study, they exposed Frankie to the "smell" of thyroid cancer by letting him sniff on diseased tissue samples. They then trained him to lie down (as dogs do when they smell bombs or drugs) if he smells cancer in any of the urine samples from patients.

Of the 34 samples, he was able to correctly detect 32. This means the dog has an accuracy of 90 percent.

It's still too early for Frankie to be used to diagnose patients outside of a research context. But more study is already in the works involving more canine "physicians," researchers said.

"Scent-trained canines could be used by physicians to detect the presence of thyroid cancer at an early stage and to avoid surgery when unwarranted," said Dr. Donald Bodenner, chief of endocrine oncology at the university.

Thyroid cancer affects over 60,000 people in the United States every year, according to the American Cancer Society. At least 1,900 of them die every year.

The survival rate is very high, and one of the reasons is effective screening and detection. For example, ultrasounds have become so advanced they can spot small nodules that may be less visible in the past.

Dr. Maria Pena, an endocrinologist at North Shore-LIJ's Syosset Hospital in New York, agreed dogs may help complement the current thyroid nodule biopsy process

This research is still early, and experts note findings presented at medical meetings are typically considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.

TagsFrankie the Dog, Dog, Frankie, Cancer, thyroid cancer, sniffing dog