Why Vet Schools Are Important For Med Schools

About 100,000 dogs a year get Cushing's disease, a condition in which a tumor on the pituitary gland produces too much cortisol. Dogs gain weight, experience high blood pressure and their muscles atrophy.

Recently, the procedure used on humans to remove the tumor has become available to animals, thanks to the collaboration between a neurosurgeon and some veterinarians based in Los Angeles. While the procedure is rare in humans, it is much more common in pets, so this collaboration was a win-win for both species.

It was the human neurosurgeon who taught the procedure to the veterinarians. In return, he gained access to tissue sample from dogs with the disease--a veritable data bank for him. In fact, according to the New York Times, it is these tissues that are instrumental in the development of drugs to treat the disease in animals as well as humans.

It is, quite simply, another area in which veterinary medicine and human medicine can both learn from each other and help both species in the process. "We have a full loop," says Dr. Adam Mamelak, the LA neurosurgeon who taught the vets how to remove the tumor. "We're using a human procedure in animals, and using their tissue to study the disease."