DOG VACCINE GIVES HOPE FOR CANINE MELANOMA
April 30, 2001 (article from New York Daily News)
Boston Globe 7/16/2001
It's a (longer, healthier) dog's life
Veterinarians cite advances in care of pets
It was just a routine annual physical, but the doctor looked grave.
''Smokey may have cancer,'' Holly Zielinski recalled being told, wiping away
tears at the memory. ''My heart just sank. He was part of the family and I
didn't know what could be done for him.''
A few years ago, the answer would have been ''nothing,'' according to Dr.
Dennis McCurnin, chairman of the American Veterinary Medical Association's
planning board.
But now, family dogs like Smokey - a 10-year-old American eskimo that
Zielinski raised from a puppy - have nearly as many options to combat disease
and the ravages of age as humans. This week, veterinarians from around the
country have gathered in Boston to discuss ways to improve the health of
America's pets.
More than 8,000 veterinarians, specialists, medical inventors, and their
families are meeting at the Hynes Veterans Memorial Convention Center through
Wednesday for the association's annual conference.
Convention topics include rehabilitative therapies for dogs, use of lasers to
treat disease in small animals, and battling cancer in dogs and cats. The
mental health of pets is also a hot topic, with seminars on separation anxiety
in dogs and cats and even psychogenic feather picking in birds.
''In years past, if an animal was sick, the veterinarian would say maybe we
should just put him to sleep,'' said McCurnin, who has been a veterinarian for
35 years and now is director of veterinary teaching at Louisiana State
University. ''Now people don't want to hear that.''
According to a 1995 survey by the American Association of Animal Hospitals, 70
percent of pet owners said they treat their pets like children.
Cats are the favorite family addition, with nearly 79 million living in homes
in the United States, according to AVMA statistics. Dogs are man's
second-best friend, with a US population of 59 million. Birds, fish, pigs,
and snakes, especially the more exotic members of those species, have also
become popular, particularly with busy Americans who want the affection a pet
offers, but without as much responsibility.
McCurnin said most owners are willing to take extraordinary measures to extend
the lives of their pets.
As a result, now there are hundreds of specialists, something nearly unheard
of 20 years ago, said McCurnin. Fido, Fluffy, and Polly can have nearly every
procedure humans have access to - from simple cataract removals by a trained
animal ophthalmologist to kidney transplants by a team of professional pet
surgeons - all for a price that can range from several hundred dollars to tens
of thousands.
''Nobody knew what specialists were in veterinary medicine back in 1973,''
said McCurnin, who became one of the first certified small animal orthopedic
surgeons more than 30 years ago. ''But today there are about 850 in the
United States alone, and about 725 of those are in private practice.''
When Smokey became ill, Zielinski took him to see an oncologist, who removed
the tumor. She is now considering paying for radiation treatment.
She is not alone. American pet owners have spent $5 billion to $6 billion on
veterinary bills each year since 1997, according to the US Bureau of Labor
Statistics.
''Some people think that I should let it go, that Smokey is just a dog,'' said
Zielinski. ''But he's more than that, he's family.''
Dec. 8, 1999 (article from USA TODAY)
By Anita Manning, USA TODAY
Related stories |
| 'There was no
choice' on costly chemo The signs of cancer in small animals |
Health insurance claims for a type of skin cancer in dogs jumped 80% last year, a study says. And while there's some debate about whether the rise is real or the result of better reporting, the findings are prompting veterinarians to warn pet owners to be on the lookout for signs of cancer in their four-footed friends.
The American Veterinary Medical Foundation, which issued the report, says the increase occurred in diagnoses of mast cell tumors, which usually appear as lumps under the skin and are the most common form of skin cancer in dogs.
Pets, like humans, "are living in a more polluted environment," says Gregory Ogilvie, director of the medical oncology research lab at Colorado State University's Animal Cancer Center in Fort Collins. "Everything from air pollution to water pollution to electromagnetic radiation not only affects us, but also animals."
Additionally, he says, thanks to advances in veterinary medicine and animal nutrition, "animals are living to an age where they get cancer."
But he says the biggest reason for the increase in diagnoses, if not in cancer itself, is that pets "have gone from the back yard to the bedroom." Now that pets are indoors, suspicious lumps are more likely to be spotted.
| The signs of cancer in small animals: |
 Abnormal swellings that persist or continue to grow Wounds that do not
heal Unexplained weight
loss Loss of appetite Bleeding or
discharge from any body opening Offensive odor Difficulty eating
or swallowing Hesitation to
exercise or loss of stamina Persistent
lameness or stiffness Difficulty
breathing, urinating or defecating |
Still, the jump in skin cancer diagnoses in 1998, picked up by an analysis of claims made to Veterinary Pet Insurance, is puzzling, says veterinarian Elizabeth Hodgkins , the medical director for the pet health insurance company.
"We know people who buy insurance for pets are highly involved with their pets. They want that dog, not a dog, or that cat, not a cat," and as such, they might not represent the norm. "So we've got a peculiar population, but they own all dogs and cats, not just dogs predisposed to mast cell tumors."
At increased risk are golden retrievers, boxers, Boston terriers and all dogs over age 10.
"It's a very real thing," Hodgkins says. "Does that mean it's the hole in the ozone layer? We know there are probably other things factoring in, not the least of which is that insured pets get lumps and bumps biopsied more frequently."
Between 1993 and 1997, the company received 705 claims for treatment of mast cell tumors, 0.54% of the 130,000 claims for all causes during that period, Hodgkins says. In 1998, she says, there were 369 mast cell tumor claims, or 0.9% of the total of 40,000.
Better reporting?
While he agrees diagnoses are up, "there's no reason to believe cancer is on an exponential growth curve in animals," says Stephen Withrow , chief of oncology at Colorado State's Animal Cancer Center. "We're better at looking for tumors, so reporting is better."
Early detection is crucial.
"In veterinary medicine, the four most dangerous words are 'Let's just watch it,'" Withrow says. "Every lump in a dog warrants some minimum diagnostic. The issue is to find them small and treat them big."
A cancer diagnosis in an animal used to be a death warrant, Ogilvie says, but that is no longer the case: "Just as in people, early detection is key. While it is the most common cause of death in dogs, it's also the most curable chronic condition."
Much of the cutting-edge research in animal cancer is done at the Animal Cancer Center at Colorado State. It's the largest veterinary cancer center in the nation, with a staff of 40 treating 1,500 new patients a year, and a $9 million expansion program is under way to add labs specializing in nuclear medicine, magnetic resonance imaging and complementary medicine, such as acupuncture and massage therapy.
The addition will provide resources "to look at the genetic, molecular and cellular basis of cancer," Withrow says.
Research is done only on animals with cancer and in the context of clinical trials. No experimental animals are used. The Morris Animal Foundation, American Veterinary Medical Foundation and National Institutes of Health are among groups that finance research. In the past 20 years, NIH has provided $30 million for the study of cancer in animals as a model for human cancer.
"Dogs, in fact, can be sentinels, because cancers develop quicker and earlier in dogs than in humans," Withrow says, and "80% of dog and cat cancers are identical to the human cancer. They may vary in incidence and frequency, but the biology - how they behave, how they respond to chemotherapy or radiation - is the same. For instance, bone cancer (in dogs) is identical to the disease in humans, but the incidence is much higher, so we can do research much quicker."
New treatments
Among treatments pioneered at the Animal Cancer Center:
Bone-replacement
surgery. "Bone cancer is common in large-breed dogs," Ogilvie says.
"Not long ago, we had to amputate limbs." Now doctors can remove a cancerous
bone and replace it with a healthy bone from the center's bone bank. Similar procedures
save limbs in children with bone cancer.
"Flip
and nuke." That's what Ogilvie and colleagues call another limb-sparing
surgical treatment for bone cancer. It involves removing the affected bone with the joint
attached, irradiating the cancerous bone and replacing it in the body.
Drugs.
"We've been developing a system to be able to give chemotherapy in a
slow-release polymer injected under the skin. The polymer releases the chemicals over
weeks. There are very few toxicities, yet an enhanced beneficial effect to the
patients," Ogilvie says. Veterinarian oncologists, like their counterparts in human
medicine, also are using new drugs that aim to block the ability of cancer cells to
survive and aim to boost the immune response.
Nutrition.
Research the past 15 years at Colorado State has resulted in the first patented dietary
formula shown in studies to enhance the effects of cancer therapy, extend the time before
relapse and reduce the adverse effects associated with chemotherapy, Ogilvie says.
Radiation.
As part of a National Cancer Institute study, Susan LaRue, a radiation oncologist, is
using hyperthermia - heat - along with radiation and drugs to kill tumors. The study is
focusing on determining the optimal heat dose, which may vary from tumor to tumor.
"We want to get as much heat as you can to the tumor without hurting normal
tissue."
Many of the tools available to veterinarians - 3-D imaging, CT scans, linear accelerators - are comparable to those used in human medicine, LaRue says. But all that high-tech treatment isn't cheap. Costs for surgery can run to $5,000, and radiation treatments average $2,500 to $3,000, LaRue says.
"But veterinary medicine on the whole is a tremendous bargain in terms of what you're getting, compared to what you're spending," she says. Radiation therapy in humans, using the same equipment she uses, can cost $10,000.
The new therapies may give extra years to the life of a much-loved pet, Withrow says. Of all the chronic diseases that attack animals, "cancer is the only one you can cure," he says. "I hate to hear people give up when they hear the word 'cancer.' We've got a fighting chance here."
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