Early cancer findings from the Dog Aging Project

What is it about?

The Dog Aging Project (DAP) is a US-based group of over 55,000 dogs who are being followed throughout their lives. This study looked at cancer diagnoses: malignant and benign, and where in the body those cancers were diagnosed. This is early research from the DAP, much more will be able to be conducted as time goes on.

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Photo by Michael on Unsplash

Photo by Michael on Unsplash

Why is it important?

This research was hypothesis-generating: we were looking at overall patterns of cancer locations and the types of dogs who get cancer to help us find things we want to study more. For example, cancers were equally common between purebred and mixed breed dogs, but cancer was more common in large breed dogs compared to small breed dogs. The locations of malignant and benign tumors were mostly the same: the limb or foot were overwhelmingly the most common location for both cancer types.