- WASHINGTON -- A study that
links lawn chemicals to bladder cancer in Scottish terriers could help
shed light on whether they cause cancer in some people, U.S. researchers
said Tuesday.
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- Purdue University researchers surveyed 83 owners of Scottish
terriers whose pets had recently been diagnosed with bladder cancer for
their report, published in the Journal of the American Veterinary Medicine
Association.
-
- "The risk ... was found to be between four and seven
times more likely in exposed animals," said Larry Glickman, professor
of epidemiology and environmental medicine in Purdue's School of Veterinary
Medicine. "While we hope to determine which of the many chemicals
in lawn treatments are responsible, we also hope the similarity between
human and dog genomes will allow us to find the genetic predisposition
toward this form of cancer found in both Scotties and certain people."
-
- Glickman and his colleagues earlier found that Scotties
are about 20 times more likely to develop bladder cancer than other breeds.
-
- "These dogs are more sensitive to some factors in
their environment," Glickman said in a statement. "As pets tend
to spend a fair amount of time in contact with plants treated with herbicides
and insecticides, we decided to find out whether lawn chemicals were having
any effect on cancer frequency."
-
- The National Cancer Institute says about 38,000 men and
15,000 women are diagnosed with bladder cancer each year. Humans and animals
often share genes that can predispose them to cancer.
-
- "If such a gene exists in dogs, it's likely that
it exists in a similar location in the human genome," Glickman said.
"Finding the dog gene could save years in the search for it in humans
and could also help us determine which kids need to stay away from lawn
chemicals."
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- Glickman's team plans to survey children, as well as
dogs, in households that have treated lawns and compare the chemicals in
their urine samples with those from households with untreated lawns.
-
- "It's important to find out which lawn chemicals
are being taken up by both children and animals," he said.
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- http://www.enn.com/news/2004-04-21/s_23016.asp
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