Being across the street in the
business school for the past year, I am at a loss for hilarious,
touching, or thought provoking vet school stories. Instead, I
have used my time with you to discuss a vet student's view of
business school, cool things about Texas A&M, and the less well
known functions of a veterinarian. I figure that when I get
back to vet school, I will have so many stories that now is my
opportunity to expand your view of veterinary medicine and Texas
A&M. I have enjoyed bringing to you tales of research at
A&M that has bred goats to produce malaria vaccine in their
milk, the role of veterinarians in our food safety and homeland
security, or the importance of veterinarians in the public policy
making process. Today, I am going to shift gears and focus on
dogs. Dogs have been the quintessential human company for
thousands of years, and thanks to our four legged friends, they may
be the key to helping us stay healthier for decades to come.
As I write this, Shorty, my wife and I's miniature Australian
shepherd, is curled up near my feet. He is the cuddliest dog
I have ever seen. Anytime my wife and I sit on the couch
together, he jumps up to be right in between us. He doesn't
want to be left out of any family time. I have always had
dogs growing up. My family had some of the best, including
Shorty's mom and dad, but I always thought it was a little crazy to
think of spending several thousand dollars on veterinary bills for
a dog. But that was before Shorty. The happiness he
brings to Lauren and I is worth his weight in gold. In fact,
my sentiments were almost challenged a couple weeks ago when he
screamed out in pain from an apparent problem in his neck. We
rushed him to A&M thinking he may have to have serious
diagnostic and treatment procedures. I knew what it may cost,
but for this dog, it was nothing. Turns out, his incident,
although extremely acute, dissipated rapidly and with the help of
some pain medication. I still don't know what exactly caused
his problem, but he has completed his pain meds and is back to 100%
and looking for the next squirrel to chase.
I tell that story so I could tell this one. An A&M
veterinary clinician and a couple of MD Anderson researchers have
developed a process to treat B-cell type Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma,
NHL, in dogs. This cancer affects several hundred thousand
dogs every year with swift and devastating results. Dogs that
don't undergo any treatment will die within a few weeks. Even
with treatment, the dogs may not last much longer. This new
treatment, called expanded T-cell therapy, is an additional
treatment following standard chemotherapy. Before the dog
undergoes chemotherapy, the veterinarian extracts some blood and
sends it to the lab. As the dog undergoes chemo, the lab
filters out only the T-cells then grows and multiplies them.
After the dog has completed chemo, the lab sends it back to the
veterinarian for infusion back into the dog. The beauty of
this treatment is its simplicity. T-cells are a type of
immune system cell that goes out and kills non-normal cells, hence
they are called natural killer cells. This therapy allows the
dog's own immune system to fight the cancer and try to finish off
any remnants left following the chemotherapy. The early
results are quite extraordinary with dogs getting this treatment
living, on average, four times the number of disease free days
post-chemotherapy than dogs that receive chemotherapy alone.
It is no surprise to me that people are willing to spend the
thousands of dollars required for treatment with these kinds of
results.
That isn't even the best part. This expanded T-cell
therapy could one day be used to treat humans with NHL.
Around 70,000 people will be diagnosed with NHL in the U.S. this
year alone. After researchers have had time to gather more
data on dogs, they will be able to better evaluate the chances of
success in people. Your dog could very well be helping you
live longer after cancer. How cool is that!
That is not the only cool thing we have going on in the A&M
veterinary world. On another study, researchers are using our
brand new Diagnostic Imaging and Cancer Treatment Center to develop
new ways to treat canine brain tumors. Canine brain tumors
are very similar to brain tumors found in kids. Figure out a
better way to do something in dogs, and you may have a better way
to do it in children. Yes, now I am telling you that dogs
hold the key to fighting brain cancer. In another part of the
Small Animal Hospital, there are a ton of Labrador puppies running
around. These aren't your ordinary puppies, they come from a
line of dogs that have a genetic predisposition to a type of kidney
cancer. Researchers are breeding these dogs in order to study
this cancer because, you guessed it, there is a corresponding
cancer in people. These Labs hold the key to understanding
and fighting these cancers. (In case you are worried, most of
the Lab puppies do not have the cancer and are subsequently adopted
out to veterinary students. Hence, if you ever come to an
Aggie vet student gathering, you will see a lot of Labs.)
These dogs, our dogs, have always looked out for us. Just
think back to the images of Lassie, Hooch, Tin Tin, or your
favorite dog growing up. We always associated the protection
the dogs provided to a physical one against threats from the
outside. Now, these same canines are helping to protect us
from threats inside our own bodies. Seems like our ever
servant companions have some tricks up their sleeves, and who
knows, they may be the key to helping us beat cancer. Now, I
need to go because Shorty is giving me the "Its time to thank me
for my contributions by feeding me" face. Gig'em!