DawnWatch: NY Times front page covers cancer drug trials on dogs — 11/24/06
November 25th, 2006 5:48 pm by Kelly Garbato———- Forwarded message ———-
From: DawnWatch – news [at] dawnwatch.com
Date: Nov 24, 2006 6:44 PM
Subject: DawnWatch: NY Times front page covers cancer drug trials on dogs — 11/24/06
An article by Andrew Pollack on the front page of the Friday, November 24, New York Times (also on the International Herald Tribune and Houston Chronicle websites) is headed, “U.S. trials for new cancer drugs benefit family dogs.”
It opens,
“Dogs have long been used for medical research, usually to the dismay of animal-rights activists.
“But now pet owners are enrolling their dogs in medical trials meant to benefit humans and animals alike. And some animal advocates are applauding the development.
“Most of the trials, often sponsored by drug companies or makers of medical devices, involve pets with cancer – a leading natural cause of death in older dogs – in which the animals receive groundbreaking drugs or other treatments that are eventually meant for human patients.
“The drug giant Pfizer has already introduced a human cancer drug that was given an early test in pet dogs, and a California company, IDM Pharma, recently filed for U.S. approval of another drug that received similar testing.
“Treating dogs gives researchers an idea of whether and how the treatment will work in people, while at the same time possibly helping the pets.”
The words “give researchers an idea” are telling as they do only provide an idea; tests on animals are sometimes assumed to have a greater predictive value than they deserve. Many people have died from drugs that did no harm to other animals. That is partly because our systems are so different, (see www.curedisease.com and www.pcrm.org for more on that) and the article points to other factors:
“The history of the war on cancer is full of drugs that worked in mice but not in people. That is partly because the tumors used in mouse studies are somewhat artificial, often injected into mice whose immune systems have first been disabled. In pet dogs, as in people, the cancer arises spontaneously and the immune systems are functioning.”
But the article notes:
“Researchers caution that pet dogs cannot totally replace mice and laboratory dogs. For one thing, drugs are generally tested for toxicity in young healthy animals, not old ones with cancer.”
The piece includes a quote about the new studies from Martin Stephens, vice president for animal research issues at the Humane Society of the United States: “It can help in reshaping the image of animals in science, from being considered tools to being considered patients. And we would love to see that change.”
There is irony here. Yes, the canine cancer drug trials still means that animals are being used as test subjects. But many humans on death’s door who would love to be test subjects are denied the opportunity by a system that will not allow drugs to be used, even on human patients labeled terminal, until they have gone through a battery of animal tests. At least the perverse system is now benefiting some animals.
The article is interesting and includes heartwarming tales of success stories. You’ll find it on line at www.nytimes.com/2006/11/24/business/24cancer.html or on the International Herald Tribune website at www.iht.com/articles/2006/11/24/business/dogs.php.
It presents a great opportunity for letters to the editor about the ethics and efficacy of doing toxicity tests on young healthy animals.
You can send letters to the New York Times at letters@nytimes.com or the International Herald Tribune at letters [at] iht.com.
Those in Houston should find the article on the Houston Chronicle website at www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/nation/4356965.html.
The paper recommends:
“Send letters to the editor, 250 words or less, as part of e-mail text to viewpoints@chron.com. Include name, address, and day and evening phone numbers for verification purposes only. Letters subject to editing.”
The Houston Chronicle has a fun and informative page about its letters policy at: webadv.chron.com/ads/ads_i/insidestory/your_letter.html.
When you write, please be sure not to use any comments or phrases from me or from any other alerts in your letters. Editors are looking for original responses from their readers.
Yours and the animals’,
Karen Dawn
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(DawnWatch is an animal advocacy media watch that looks at animal issues in the media and facilitates one-click responses to the relevant media outlets. You can learn more about it, and sign up for alerts at www.DawnWatch.com. You are encouraged to forward or reprint DawnWatch alerts but please do so unedited. Please DawnWatch in the title and include this parenthesized tag line.)
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Tagged: animals animal+rights action+alerts dawnwatch animal+research vivisection cancer cancer+research drug+tests
