July 17, 2012

White Dog and The White Dog Army are still reeling from the loss of yet another four-legged friend to the evil monster and today brought news of a human friend in animal rescue who has to set aside her mission to save animal lives while she focuses on her personal battle to save her own life from stomach cancer.

Instinctively, we all know to hate this sneaky powerful foe. We each have seen the beast attack those we love, have heard stories from those we know even casually  or are familiar with someone from the world of celebrity being stricken. cancer.touches.everyone. without a doubt.

The WDA is preparing its annual awareness and fund raising assault on the evil beast through our 2MillionDogs Puppy Up! Walk to End Cancer. This year we have committed to organizing and participating in two Walks in New Mexico. As we focus on and build this grassroots movement to make a difference across the next weeks, we know we can rely on our Blog Family to offer support and encouragement…as you have done before.

But to start we want to share the immensity of the monster’s horror. The numbers are staggering. The loss to big to fully grasp. The outrage over the broken hearts and grieving families overpowering. The c monster is strong but NOT invincible…these facts just convince us more than ever of the need to focus all of our energy and hope on finding a cure.

Here are some facts that you may not know…Read them, please, and join our voices howling a battle charge to a day when cancer.any cancer. touches. NO one.  ever again.

• This year nearly 550,000 humans will die from some form of cancer.
•  In the United States, there are approximately 60 million pet dogs. Based on crude incidence rates, it is estimated there are over 4 million new cases of cancer diagnosed in pet dogs each year; one every 3 seconds.
• Each year in the U.S. there are approximately 12,400 children between the ages of birth and 19 years of age who are diagnosed with cancer. About one in 300 boys and one in 333 girls will develop cancer before their 20th birthday.
• Like ourselves, our pet dogs suffer from a wide range of spontaneous cancers. For thousands of years humans and dogs have shared a unique bond. In the 21st century this relationship is now strengthened to one with a solid biomedical basis; the genome of the dog may hold the keys to unlocking some of nature's most intriguing puzzles about cancer. (Matthew Breen, Ph.D., North Carolina State University's Center for Comparative Medicine and Translational Research. )
• Mammary tumors are the most common tumors in intact female dogs, and in humans, breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer in women.
• Childhood cancers are the #1 disease killer of children--more than asthma, cystic fibrosis, diabetes, and AIDS combined.
• Osteosarcoma, the most common bone cancer of large and giant breed dogs, closely resembles the osteosarcoma in teenagers in its skeletal location and aggressiveness.
• Cancer is the primary cause of mortality in adult cats. Another word for cancer is “neoplasia.” Feline neoplasia tends to strike older and intact animals. An exception to this is in cats infected with the feline leukemia virus (FeLV) or the feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV). These cats have an increased risk of developing cancer at a young age.
• Genetic changes that occur in dogs diagnosed with chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia are identical to the genetic abnormalities in humans with the same cancer.
• A study, conducted at Purdue University, found that pre-malignant mammary lesions in dogs and humans display many of the same characteristics; discovery that could lead to a better understanding of breast cancer, the second leading cause of deaths in women. Purdue research shows that the similarity between canine and human lesions associated with breast cancer makes dogs an ideal model to study progression of the disease while it is still treatable. (Elisabetta Antuofermo)
•  Lung cancer is the most common cancer worldwide, accounting for 1.3 million deaths annually. Lung cancer is the leading cancer killer in both men and women in the United States. Lung cancer in dogs is almost always secondary in nature. Cancerous cells spread from other parts of the body to affect the lungs and is nearly always fatal. About 50% of dogs with lung cancer surgery have a life expectancy of 1 year.
• Cancer effects one out of every three dogs;  and half of those will die from the evil monster.
•  Cancer is even more widespread in cats and dogs than in humans. Companion animals from smokers’ homes are more susceptible to bladder cancer than those from non-smoking homes.
•  Humans and dogs are the only two species on the planet to get prostate cancer.