A new study suggests that some dog breeds may be more likely to get cancer than others.
At first, experts thought that bigger breeds of dogs were more likely to get cancer. But new studies have shown that this isn’t always the case. The new studies show that large dog breeds, but not always the biggest ones, do have the highest chance of cancer. The study, which came out on Tuesday in Royal Society Open Science, told us a lot about dog breeds and how they might be linked to cancer.
This study helped experts figure out how cancer starts and how it spreads. It also showed how certain health problems are linked to different dog breeds. Scientist Leonard Nunney from the University of California, Riverside, wrote the main part of the paper that talks about the study.
Starting with people, they said that getting cancer is more likely as your body gets bigger. At first, this was thought to be true for dogs too.
“You have things that range in size from a Chihuahua to a mastiff or a Great Dane,” Nunney said. There are a lot of different sizes.
After that, he said that their discovery showed that big dogs are less likely to get cancer than other breeds because they don’t live as long. Nunney’s main point is that these dogs don’t live long enough for cancer to show up or become a problem.
Doctor Nunney says that Flat Coat Retrievers, Bernese Mountain Dogs, and Westies are the dog breeds most likely to get cancer. They also said that Terriers, especially Scottish Terriers, are more likely to get cancer than they thought before.
All of this being said, the results show that not many dog breeds are likely to get any kind of cancer, which is good. Nunney also said that the study could help in the future with how to treat dogs with cancer and how those dogs respond to different types of cancer.
“Dogs are an extremely good model for understanding the genetic changes that may make people more likely to get certain cancers,” he said to end his speech.
