Joe Biden: ‘Not a Joke’ — Dogs Can Help Cure Cancer

President Joe Biden said dogs had the power to help cure cancer during a visit Tuesday to a cancer research center.

“By the way, dogs may help cure cancer,” he said, noting dogs had a better sense of smell than humans. “Not a joke. Dogs are able to … they’re using dogs now … to smell cancer in people’s legs, in people’s bodies, not a joke, it’s a fascinating thing.”

Biden spoke to reporters and medical experts during a tour of the James Cancer Hospital in Columbus, Ohio.

A study published in 2019 reported that dogs could accurately pick out blood samples from people with cancer with their noses. Dogs have also been trained to work with some cancer research teams to detect cancer.

He was briefed about the fight to cure cancer by Dr. Arnab Chakravarti, the chair of the radiology and oncology department at Ohio State University.

Biden said he was encouraged by the briefing and all of the technological progress on fighting the disease.

“It’s mostly hopeful because I don’t want to see anybody go through what my son did,” he said, referring to his son Beau Biden’s death of cancer.

Biden spoke about his son at length recalling the damage that radiation took on his son’s body during the treatment.

“The use of radiation is a very complex thing, my son underwent it, radiation is a complicated deal … radiation kills all of the bad things but also kills any good things it comes into contact with,” he said.