Like people, dogs are prone to the usual illnesses and happily bounce back when they get better. That is, if the story ends well and if the sickness is the usual one's dogs get. What if anyone brought their pet to the vet and the prognosis turn out to be cancer? For many pets that will be a slow decline and a traumatic experience for everyone in the family.
Cancer strikes dogs and is often terminal or amputate the diseased body part. Several of these breeds are boxers and Golden Retrievers with a marked propensity for the disease. With little research and cure for the dreaded big C, Dogs sick with cancer don't have a fighting chance. However, research into cancer treatments are on the rise, no more losing pets.
Since dogs suffer cancer as do humans, researchers used this lead to study cancer in dogs that might lead to understanding how cancer works. Also, pet dogs are better than rodents and allow cures to be documented for veracity. Another reason why dogs are the perfect subjects to use discovering more secrets to cure the disease better.
For example, dogs cohabit with people and drink, eat almost the same food as their owners. Every aspect of their lives from pups to old age, they share with humans.Cancer is an awful mutation in genetic proteins happen in both men and dogs. Dogs have been living with us and share a bond, unlike other inter species relationships.
Read: Dogs' Cancer Cases Help Advance Human Cancer Research
More studies into cancer and cures that follow are first done on dogs, who are likely to die but their sacrifice allows other people to live. As more cancer studies and treatments are devised, man's best friend also benefits from it. In nature only a few animals are given this privilege, then is the dog which is important to many human-interspecies relationships.
One of the biggest supporters of cancer studies is the National Cancer Institute which gave money to study cancers in pet dogs. Several of their projects are immunotherapy treatments, targeting cures for four cancers that strike dogs in particular. Drug companies are now key players in developing anti-cancer drugs for dogs, owners are willing to spend to save their beloved pets.
Amy LeBlanc who specialized in veterinary cancer commented that more money is poured in dog cancer studies, more than any other time. Another is this variety of research done to explore possibilities of a new cure. Commercialization of the research in curing dogs of cancer offers more insight that will apply to human studies. Also, there is more delving into genetic properties of canine cancer by specialists in studying canine cancer.
Most owners are willing to subject their pets to trials and studies just to give dogs sick with cancer a fighting chance. Getting more new treatments for dogs are also opening new fields of research into canine health.
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