The next issue of the “Golden Retriever News” will present an update provided by the University of Minnesota on research supported in part by the Golden Retriever Foundation through its partnership with the AKC Canine Health Foundation. Many GRCA members donated blood and tumor samples in support of this project, and we hope that knowing their dog contributed to knowledge that will improve the future for both humans and dogs will help these owners to find meaning in their loss.
The results of this project were so impressive that it caught the attention of the National Institutes of Health, which has now contributed over one million dollars to a subsequent project that will build upon these findings. Therefore, we renew our call to owners to participate in this research by considering sample donation. While we continue to also recruit samples for other studies and other kinds of cancer (including blood from any affected dog, even after beginning chemotherapy), this particular project requires blood and tumor samples from Goldens with lymphoma. Tumor samples must be collected prior to beginning chemotherapy, and must be prepared for shipment in a special transport media which is overnighted to your veterinarian. Therefore, it is critical that owners contact us without delay when they even suspect their dog may have lymphoma – it is not necessary for the diagnosis to have been confirmed.
If you feel enlarged lymph nodes (for example, “lumps” on the throat under the back of the jaw that seemed to appear very rapidly), please contact us even prior to your vet appointment if there is time to do so. Or if your veterinarian has diagnosed lymphoma based on a fine needle aspirate in the office, please contact us immediately without waiting for a pathology report or oncology consultation.
Please use any of the following contacts:
Tessa Breen (sample coordinator for Dr Matthew Breen)
919-513-1466
The Modiano Lab
612-626-6890
Rhonda Hovan (GRCA Research Facilitator)
330-668-0044 hm or 330-338-4236 cell
Thank you again for your past support, and in advance for your future support. As you will read in the GRNews, by working together, we are making a difference!
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