There’s no doubt that veterinary medical research has brought tremendous breakthroughs to help not only our canines but, as a side effect, humans as well. The controversy that has surrounded stem cell research has largely ignored many of the facts as people get skewed information, and often the phrase “stem cell research” is trivialized or treated as something horrific. The message often received from politicians makes it sound akin to breeding human babies for their stem cells, or mutilating corpses of human infants. That is not only bizarre, it’s far from accurate.

The American Kennel Club/Canine Health Foundation’s bi-annual Parent Club Conference in St. Louis (October 2007) brought the message of stem cell research and its importance home in very clear terms as the researchers themselves explained their work. It certainly dispelled any notion of horrors that have been alluded to in the media.

The reports at the meeting were on stem cell research in cancer and cardiology. Rick Vulliet, D.V.M., Ph.D. (University of California, Davis) used the term “cytotherapeutics” when giving his keynote address. He pointed out that among the diseases in which stem cell therapy might make a difference are degenerative myelopathy, dilated cardiomyopathy, and selected inborn errors of metabolism. In general, any disease that results from a premature loss of cells has the potential for treatment with cells, from either the patient or donations from closely related donors.

Trials in both humans and animals are underway. Anyone interested in seeing the range of trials can go to: www.clinicaltrials.gov.

Cancer has been recognized in people since the time of the ancient Greeks. According to Dr. Jaime Modiano, we began to recognize why cancer happens only at the end of the 19th century. Dr. Modiano has taught and conducted research at several veterinary schools in the United States. In July 2007, he joined the College of Veterinary Medicine, School of Medicine, and Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Minnesota, where he continues his research program as Professor of Comparative Oncology holding the Al and June Perlman Endowed Chair.

Today we know that cancer is the leading cause of death in humans under the age of 85, and the most common cause of disease-related death in dogs. There have been advances in cancer identification and therapy and many patients, both canine and human, live productive lives after diagnosis and treatment.

Cancer is a disease of stem cells, which makes this type of research valuable. Cancer begins with one cell that expands and self-renews. Both a normal and a cancerous cell will do this, but the cancer cell is one that has mutated from a normal cell.

According to Dr. Modiano, “The ‘cancer stem cell’ theory states that cancers arise from cells that share properties with stem cells. These are 1) the ability to make progeny that can undergo continuous self-re-newal (make an identical daughter cell) and 2) the ability to differentiate along one or more pathways.

Self-renewal and differentiation potential are two essential features of stem cells, but that does not mean that all cancers necessarily arise from stem cells. It is a source of confusion and controversy because the definition is functional and not semantic. In fact, some people believe that ‘cancer stem cells’ arise from somatic cells that undergo mutation in key genes that endow them with stem cell potential. Cancer cells have some properties that resemble those that are found in stem cells.”

Modiano adds, “The natural history of lymphoma, osteosarcoma, and melanoma are similar in dogs and people, and for that reason we can extrapolate information from what we learn in dogs to improve outcomes for people with these tumors and vice versa.”

“Stem cell technology is emerging clearly as one of the more exciting and promising areas of biomedical research,” says Matthew Breen, Ph.D., C.Biol., M.I.Biol., Professor of Genomics in the Department of Molecular Biomedical Sciences at the College of Veterinary Medicine and Center for Comparative Medicine and Translational Research at North Carolina State Univer-sity. Dr. Breen was honoured by AKC/CHF with their highest award, The Asa Mays, D.V.M., Excellence in Canine Health Research award, one well deserved by this pioneer in research that will ultimately benefit both our canine companions and their human friends. Breen’s research interests include genomics, genome mapping, and comparative aspects of canine research in human research. Breen was one of the key investigators in the mapping of the canine genome.

“There is growing hope that [research in stem cell technology] could lead to development of new treatments and maybe even cures for some terrible disease. There is still much to learn about this field and so time will tell if the optimism surrounding this area of research will be sustained and realized broadly,” adds Breen candidly.

“There is no specific ‘stem cell therapy’ that is being developed to treat cancer, to the best of my knowledge,” states Modiano. “Stem cell transplants may help support or repopulate the bone marrow after cytotoxic chemotherapy (as has been done for breast cancer patients for some time). On the other hand, identifying key features that are unique to ‘cancer stem cells’ – a better name may be ‘tumour initiating cells’ – may al-low us to develop more effective therapies. But we have no reason to believe normal stem cells will necessarily provide cancer cures at this time.”

To aid in the research, not only do these researchers and their colleagues work together but they have formed the Canine Comparative Oncology and Genomics Consortium of which Dr. Breen is a founding member and director, as is Dr. Modiano. The consortium has an independent advisory board. Researchers share the samples and their findings.

Research has been centred on both cancer and cardiology, but that would seem to be just the tip of the iceberg. If this early research is any indication, many more diseases might benefit from stem cell treatment. Only investigation and time will tell. The possibilities are enormous and exciting.