Cancer Prevention for Dogs on the Way

Dog owners will be excited to hear of a potential new treatment that will have the potential to prevent cancer in their pet dogs.

The first ever cancer prevention trial for pet dogs has been approved and will be carried out by the Gerald P. Murphey Cancer Foundation in West, Lafayette, Indiana.

The approved cancer trial in dogs will be the first "randomised, double blind, placebo-controlled" every carried out. The study will seek out 700 Rottweilers around the country to participate in the trial. The researchers will test the affects of antioxidants in the prevention of canine cancer. The dogs will either receive a placebo or a supplement containing antioxidants in their food. The researchers believe that the use of antioxidants will greatly reduce the occurrence of bone cancer in the dogs.

All of the dogs accepted into the study must be healthy and aged between 5 and 6 years old. There will be no criteria for dividing the dogs up into the supplement and placebo groups, it will be completely random. The dogs will then be observed over the next eight years to record the effects of the antioxidants in hopes that the researchers theory is correct.

The primary focus of the study will be to see if the antioxidants protect against cancer in dogs. The secondary purpose of the study will see if the antioxidants help more dogs reach old age, which for Rottweilers is around 13 years old.

The Murphy Cancer Foundation will be responsible for conducting the study. They will also work closely with numerous vets. Protor & Gamble Pet Care, the producers of Eukanuba and Iams pet foods, is paying for the study.

The Murphy Cancer Foundation has already done some research with Rottweillers. The previous research uncovered that Rottweillers have a higher chance of developing bone cancer than many other breeds of dog. This is why this breed was specifically chosen for the new cancer prevention study.

The head of the study and the Murphy Cancer Foundation's Executive Director, David J. Waters, DVM, PhD said in today's press release, "Rottweiller owners stand strongly committed to helping us figure out just how to reduce the number of dogs that succumb to cancer. This trial takes an important first step toward that goal. Our end goal is to help not only dogs, but their human owners as well, by preventing this devastating disease."

Until till now most of the cancer research done for animals and humans has centred on treating the disease with little research gone into preventing it. Investigating ways to prevent cancer is a now gaining strength in the research community.

In the U.S. one out of three dogs develops cancer and half that do develop it will die. Gold Retrievers are at particular risk for developing Lymphoma; one out of eight will die from the disease each year. Cancer is the number one cause of death in dogs in the United States.

http://www.gpmcf.org/
http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/04-05-2007/0004560188&EDATE=
http://www.wearethecure.org/intro_page.htm