Startup Battlefield company SpotitEarly trained dogs and AI to sniff out common cancers (techcrunch.com)

SpotitEarly, a Startup Battlefield company at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025, is developing an at‑home multi‑cancer screening that combines trained dogs and AI to analyze human breath. In a double‑blind clinical study of 1,400 people published in Scientific Reports, the company reports 94% accuracy detecting early-stage breast, colorectal, prostate and lung cancers. Users mail breath samples to SpotitEarly’s lab where 18 trained beagles signal cancer‑related odors by sitting; an AI platform — fed camera video, audio of the dogs’ breathing and heart‑rate telemetry — models each dog’s baseline and validates alerts to reduce handler bias. The approach is notable for pairing biological sensors (dogs’ olfaction) with multimodal machine learning to create a low‑cost, noninvasive screen. SpotitEarly, founded in Israel and recently funded with $20.3M, plans U.S. clinical expansions starting with breast cancer, a physician‑network rollout next year, and retail pricing around $250 for the first test (additional cancer screens cheaper), aiming to undercut tests like Grail’s Galleri. The work could broaden accessible early detection and accelerate biomarker discovery, but remains outside FDA approval and awaits larger validation and regulatory review before clinical adoption.