CANINE CANCER ARTICLE

In a recent issue of the Wall Street Journal, an article appeared that featured the story of a dog with advanced sinus cancer. Bailey’s tale was told in order to highlight the research being done into canine cancers and how they relate to human cancers. Bailey’s cancer cells were eradicated via tomotherapy, a targeted radiation treatment that was experimental at the time. It worked well for Bailey, who’s tumor was reduced in size enough to be surgically removed. The company that treated him, TomoTherapy, Inc. of Madison, Wisconsin, used clinical trials such as the one on Bailey to gain approval for the treatment to be used on humans. Through research like this, it has been found that dogs and people develop many of the same cancers and treatments that work for dogs often are useful in human medicine. It is too early to know if dogs can be models for all human cancers, but in many cases the treatments are similar enough to make further research promising.

While we hope that no dog ever develops cancer, in reality, many do. If yours does, please ask your veterinarian to check into any clinical trials that might be going on, and whether or not your dog would be an appropriate candidate for that trial. In most cases, treatment is at no charge if your dog is accepted into a clinical trial, and in many cases, your dog will get state-of-the-art treatment not available otherwise. For more information about cancer, contact the National Cancer Institute. This site is for and about human cancers, but links to clinical trials are offered.

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