Do dogs harbour risk factors for human breast cancer?

Medical Hypotheses
B LaumbacherR Wank

Abstract

We ask consulting patients regularly whether they keep pets in order to identify zoonotic factors. It became apparent that patients with breast carcinoma (N=69) owned significantly more often dogs but not cats compared to age matched female controls. We compared the frequencies of dog and pet ownership with data from public available statistics on women (N=1320) of the same age group in Bavaria. The most striking result was that more than twice the number of patients kept dogs permanently in the last 10 years and at the time of interrogation as compared to control individuals at the time of interrogation (p=0.0000003, relative risk 3.5). Further internet search on the morbidity of breast carcinoma showed in dogs a protracted course of disease and metastases into lung, liver and bones, resembling the course of disease in human breast cancer. In contrast with this, breast cancer presented in cats a dramatically short course and the main but unusual location of metastasis presents in the hind legs. A recent publication in Norway reported on a high frequency (53.3%) of breast carcinomas in 14,401 investigated dogs. Which transmissible factor or factors come into question? Variants of the mouse mammary tumor virus (MMTV) can product...Continue Reading

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Citations

Oct 1, 2010·Journal of Clinical Microbiology·Wei-Li HsuShih-Chieh Chang
Mar 28, 2008·The Journal of Steroid Biochemistry and Molecular Biology·Felisbina L QueirogaJuan C Illera
Apr 13, 2013·International Journal of Cancer. Journal International Du Cancer·Brian Salmons, Walter H Gunzburg
Mar 21, 2013·Veterinary and Comparative Oncology·C VercelliG Re
Nov 16, 2019·NPJ Breast Cancer·James S Lawson, Wendy K Glenn
Jul 28, 2015·Oncotarget·Chiara Maria MazzantiGeneroso Bevilacqua
Jul 2, 2016·Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention : a Publication of the American Association for Cancer Research, Cosponsored by the American Society of Preventive Oncology·David O GarciaCynthia A Thomson
Jun 11, 2021·Infectious Agents and Cancer·James S Lawson, Wendy K Glenn

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