Walking to raise awareness

Thanks to a post at At Home with Herbie, I just started reading about 2 Dog 2,000 Miles. Luke sold his truck, put his belongings in storage, and set off on foot with his two dogs, Hudson and Murphy. They are walking from Austin to Boston to raise awareness of canine cancer. Please visit their site, or you can follow them on Twitter. It's inspiring!

New blogs to read, fake links, wonky leg

It's been a while since I've checked in.... shame on me as I can give you a hundred excuses (work, home, summer vacation, etc.) but I really should be better about updating the blog.

This past Sunday was the second anniversary of Watson's passing. I still think about him often and we reminisce about his time with us. Time does heal, but time is also funny that an event can feel distant and close all at the same time.

Little Waldo is not so little anymore. He turned 3 in June. Still healthy, although he will go for leg surgery in December. His left leg is overly basset (i.e. crooked) and he needs some corrective surgery to hopefully give him a better quality of life as he ages. The leg is affecting his gait and his shoulder.

I've been keeping up on canine lymphoma news via Google alerts and have noticed a disturbing trend. Many of the canine cancer or canine lymphoma tags that Google picks up are actually URLs that direct you to a spam site when you click on them. It's been very frustrating to sort the wheat from the chaff.

That being said, I've found two new blogs worth a read. The first is simply titled "Canine Lymphoma" and offers facts about the disease and treatment. The second is a blog by pet nutritionist Susan Blake Davis called "Ask Ariel". Specifically, her post in response to supplements for a golden retriever with lymphoma caught my attention.

Updated Vetinfo.com pages

Hi All,

It's been a while since I've updated the blog. I am happy to report that no news means good news. Waldo is doing well and is enjoying the spring weather in New England.

I wanted to post a link to some helpful information from Vetinfo.com's pages, including How to Recognize Canine Lymphoma and 5 Subtle Canine Cancer Symptoms. There are links on these pages that lead to other informative articles too.

New canine cancer research from North Carolina State (USA)

NC State Researchers Find Soy May Aid in Treating Canine Cancers

Researchers at North Carolina State University are looking to soy as a way to make traditional canine cancer therapy more effective, less stressful for the dog and less costly for the owners.

Dr. Steven Suter, assistant professor of oncology, and NC State colleagues studied genistein - a molecule found in soy that has been shown to be toxic to a wide variety of cancer cells in humans - to determine whether it would also inhibit the growth of canine lymphoma cells.

The researchers found that a commercially available form of genistein called GCP was effective in killing canine lymphoid cells in a laboratory setting, and that GCP is “bioavailable” in canines - meaning it is absorbed into the bloodstream where it can affect cancer cells in the body. The researchers hope that their findings will lead to the use of GCP for their canine patients in conjunction with traditional cancer treatments like chemotherapy.

The researchers’ findings were published in Clinical Cancer Research.

“Humans have been using soy in conjunction with traditional chemotherapy for some time as a chemo potentiator,” Suter says. “This means that the GCP makes the chemotherapy work more efficiently and faster, which translates to less stress on the patient and less money spent on chemotherapy.”

Since dogs absorb GCP in much the same way that humans do, Suter hopes that veterinarians will be able to offer this therapy to canine patients in the near future.

“Since GCP is a dietary supplement, it is harmless to patients,” he adds. “Plus it’s inexpensive and easy to administer in a pill form. There’s really no downside here.”

Source: http://v3.news.ncsu.edu/releases/nc-state-researchers-find-soy-may-aid-in-treating-canine-cancers/

National Canine Cancer Foundation blog

I recently found the National Canine Cancer Foundation blog and thought this post "Notes by Dr Kent’s on his canine Lymphoma Cancer research with Nanoparticles. Research funded by a grant from NCCF" was interesting. Sadly, it notes that only about 5% of lymphoma dogs will be alive at two years. On the bright side, there is a new chemo trial happening specifically for relapsed lymphoma dogs.

Read more at the link above.