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To: jasbrittanys
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Timber had a most unusual cancer. It was in summary difficult for the
pathologists to determine exactly what type it was, but clearly it was a
poorly differentiated connective tissue cancer. Quite rare
and very
malignant. It produced a paraneoplastic syndrome, that
may have caused
the rapid decrease in platelets with resultant bleeding. There may have
been a hormone component to the cancer process that resulted in a
syndrome called " disseminated intravascular
coagulation that also leads
to bleeding. There may have been drug relatedness as well.
As I assess the medical history your veterinarians and specialists
approached Timber's medical problems correctly and they should be
complimented on doing good professional veterinary medicine.
There is no record of such a cancerous
process being genetically
inherited.
Never-the-less since there are no known causes, it
behooves
us to pursue genetic research and look for gene markers that might
explain the unknown. Thus, please send a copy of
the pathology report
and that there was a concurrent Lyme's Disease
infection and we will
place that with Timber's DNA history.
Please remember genetic relatedness to cancer is very difficult to
demonstrate and it takes huge amounts of money to research each type of
cancer as suspected to be inherited or an individual with genetic
susceptibility. Some labs are conducting research looking for gene
markers in certain types of lymphomas and histiocytic sarcomas. The
Bernese Mountain Dog is one breed that has a high risk
for these
cancers. The
although cancer is frequently diagnosed in our breed. your help in
obtaining as many DNA samples from relatives could help when such a
research study would be undertaken to determine whether Timber's cancer
is genetically related.
To give you an
example of difficulties involved.
We would need several such cases or those closely related cancers to
begin the study and we then we would need several genetic carriers, if
they exist, to compare known with suspected with dogs in the general
known with similar type of cancer, about 30 to 40 close relatives and
and 50 from the general Brittany population to conduct one genetic
experiment. We would use new technology that uses 125,000 markers and
would look at the entire genome. The cost of this one experiment would
be $50,000, not counting the time and effort in collecting needed
samples. This is not impossible, but the odds of getting such a project
funded is not great unless we had a large number of
same rare cancer.
Don't give up
and we will began to collect DNA samples
when ever we know of such a rare cancer. That in itself will be quite an
undertaking to find, document and collect DNA from such cases as most
such dogs are dead before one knows about them.
Sounds
pessimistic, but let's be optimistic and start with as many
samples as you can obtain in relationship to Timber. Are there relatives
with known sarcomas, lymphomas, histocytic sarcomas
that have died or
recently diagnosed? If such have occurred our pursuit would be greatly
enhanced. At the very least, a genetic study of the family would open up
unexpected new areas of investigation.
Your Faith has
given you strength and openness.
new light in the
to help humanity can happen through the
theology and outstanding example of a
follower of the Gospel.
Keep the Faith,