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Researchers at Purdue University have found an association between the risk of bladder cancer in Scottish Terriers and the dogs' exposure to lawns treated with herbicides. This ScienCentral News video has more.
New Leash on Life
A dog frolicking on a green lawn is a sight both familiar and heartwarming. But veterinary researchers at Purdue University have discovered that lawns treated with herbicides might contribute to the high rate of bladder cancer in Scottish Terriers.
Marcia Dawson, a veterinarian and Scottie owner and breeder, is all too familiar with canine bladder cancer. "It is always a shock when the bladder cancer comes from what seems to be a very healthy dog," she says. "In my case, I was really shocked. [It] was my first Scottie that was diagnosed with bladder cancer. It was devastating. We were stunned, heartbroken. The prognosis is always bad for bladder cancer. We basically knew that we were going to lose our dog in a relatively short period of time."
Larry Glickman, professor of epidemiology and environmental medicine in Purdue University School of Veterinary Medicine, and his team reported in the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association that they found an association between the risk of transitional cell carcinoma (TCC) of the urinary bladder in Scotties and the terriers' exposure to lawns treated with commonly used herbicides. The study was based on a survey of owners of 83 Scottish Terriers, all of which were about the same age, and had bladder cancer. The dog owners documented their terriers' housing, exposure time to the lawn, and information on the lawn treatment used. Those results were then compared to a control group of 83 unexposed similarly aged Scotties that were undergoing treatment for unrelated ailments. Glickman found the occurrence of bladder cancer was between four and seven times higher in the group of dogs exposed to the herbicides.
Glickman says that Scotties seem to have a genetic susceptibility to this type of cancer. "We choose the Scottish terrier because we had done a previous study to show that this breed had a higher risk of bladder cancer compared to all other breeds— about 18-fold greater risk. They probably have a gene or multiple genes that causes them to have a higher risk to have bladder cancer once they are exposed to these chemicals," he says.
Mark Schoenberg, director of urologic oncology at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, points out that this research does not prove that the herbicides caused the dogs' cancers. "This is a very intriguing study," says Schoenberg. "They proposed a link between a genetic predisposition and a chemical exposure causing bladder cancer in dogs. Obviously that is important information for pet owners, but it has larger ramifications for people studying bladder cancer for patients who have bladder cancer— mainly that there may indeed be a genetic link or a genetic predisposition in some portion of the population that predisposes them to the development to this disease when coupled with a certain type of chemical exposure in the environment. Clearly [the study] doesn't definitively prove that there is a link here, but it does prove intriguing evidence that requires further follow-up."
Glickman's study could provide clues to figuring out which genes are involved in bladder cancer. Because the human and dog genomes are so similar, finding genes that affect cancer risk in dogs could lead to better cancer treatments or prevention for both dogs and people. "We particularly focus on cancer in dogs because dogs are exposed to many of the same cancer causing chemicals in the environment as are people," Glickman explains. The American Cancer Society estimates that in 2004 there will be about 60,240 new cases of bladder cancer diagnosed in the United States.
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