Penn Vet Shelter Canine Mammary Tumor Program

When I was at the Penn Vet School last week with Luke Robinson and his dogs, I learned about a wonderful new program that is being run by the department of oncology. Remember how Luke's mission has evolved over his walk into something called comparative oncology--that is the relationship between human and animal cancer. In other words, all cancers are related and learning about animal cancer can shed some light on human cancer.

To advance this knowledge, Penn has started the Vet Shelter Canine Mammary Tumor Program. The goal of the program is to provide care for shelter dogs who have mammary tumors. The doctors at Penn's small animal hospital provide surgery for these dogs and follow up-care at no cost to the shelters and them help facilitate their adoptions, ideally to women who have had breast cancer.

It is a win win situation on many levels. Through molecular comparison of the tumors removed from the animals to human breast tumors, doctors gain important insights into both human and animal tumor development and progression. And by adopting these animals out to other cancer survivors, vets are giving these animals homes with people who clearly relate to their animal's condition. Follow up care is almost guaranteed as one survivor cares for the other. And don't ever underestimate the benefit that the dog survivors have on the human ones.

"This has been one of the most wonderful projects I have worked on as a veterinary oncologist," says Dr. Karin Sorenmo, head of the oncology department at Penn Vet and founder of this program. "To be able to provide care to homeless dogs without access to care and to give them a new lease on life has been incredibly rewarding for everybody involved. The fact that through this care we can improve our understanding of how breast cancer develops, and thus advance cancer research in general, doubles the reward."

If you would like to learn more about this program, you can read information here.