Discovery

Do you have a thought about a relation or link between canine and human cancers? Well, I dont. But researchers from University of Minnesota veterinarian Jaime Modiano do. They are studying the similarities and genetic links between canine and human cancers to help fight the disease.

It was revealed in ScienceDaily that beside having friendship and companionship, humans and dogs also share the same genetic basis for certain types of cancer.

Matthew Breen, Ph.D., said, many forms of human cancer are associated with specific alterations to the number or structure of chromosomes and the genes they contain. They developed reagents to show that the same applies to dog cancers, and that the specific genome reorganization which occurs in comparable human and canine cancers shares a common basis.

It was found that the genetic changes that occur in dogs diagnosed with certain cancers of the blood and bone marrow, including chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML), Burkitt’s lymphoma (BL), and chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), are virtually identical to genetic abnormalities in humans diagnosed with the same cancers.

(Credit: University of Minnesota, Academic Health Center)