Kali's Wish Cancer Foundation

The Causes of Cancer in the Canine Population

A Research Project by Dr. Marlene Smith

Inspired by her Bernese Mountain Dog, Isla

Outline

Over the last years cancer has become the number one cause of death in our pet population. Even though new chemotherapy cocktails are being promoted and introduced, I fail to see any progress in understanding why we lose our animals from cancer at an ever increasing rate.

Having been trained in Western Allopathic medicine and in practice for almost 30 years, I feel I am well aware as to where the western (allopathic) research and understanding has progressed to.

Also having been trained and having acquired a deep understanding of Traditional Chinese Medicine for the last 18 years, gives me an opportunity to look at the same problem from another angle.

The goal of this research is first to build a database of the various forms of cancer our pet population is suffering from and relate this to breed, age and sex.
This information should be relatively easy to retrieve.

Additional information, which may be useful, may be more difficult to retrieve. This is the information regarding vaccine status, diet (commercial kibble verses raw diet) and other related or less apparent related diseases.

Finally information on the symptoms as they develop and as the disease progresses, will also be helpful to try and find a pattern to the causes of cancer in general and our pets in particular.

Chinese Medicine tries to find a re-occurring pattern that leads to the disease expression.

Preamble

Cancer is now the leading cause of death in our canine population, with humans following close behind. Dogs seem to be more prone to die from cancer than cats or horses. In spite of this alarming phenomenon there is disturbingly little information on the cause of cancer.

I have been engaged as an active licensed veterinary practitioner since January 1977. In 1988 I successfully graduated as a licensed veterinary acupuncturist from the International Veterinary Acupuncture Society. I have been integrating acupuncture, homeopathy, Chinese Herbology and chiropractic into my small animal practice. I now own and operate the Tree of Life Veterinary Care Ltd., which provides 100%, integrated veterinary medicine for pets. I have been instrumental and actively involved in the organization and the teaching of Canadian Veterinary Acupuncture courses.

Seventeen years use of Traditional Chinese Veterinary Medicine and Homeopathy in daily practice, has taught me the importance of understanding the under lying causes of diseases. This knowledge is vital and enables the doctor to successfully treat a disease.

In the first 23 years of practice I was intrigued by the immune system and believed it to be the main culprit in the cause of diseases. I searched for alternatives and successfully treated such diseases as Lupus, Asthma, IBD; immune mediated poly-arthritis etc., using an integrated approach to TCVM, Homeopathy and herbal medicine. This work set me on the path in search of the relationship between the immune system and cancer. The alarming increase in cancer over the past 5-8 years in the dogs, made me aware how little Western Medicine knows about this disease and its treatment. I do not believe that chemotherapy will ever be able to cure cancer long-term without serious "side effects".

In 2002 I lost my own beloved Bernese Mountain Dog "Isla" to acute malignant disseminated Histiocytosis. The rapid progress of the disease and inability to save her made me promise that some day I would try and find the cause of cancer and initiate a benign and more successful treatment than the current chemo regime.
I trust that my understanding of Western Medicine, Traditional Chinese Veterinary Medicine, Homeopathy, Homotoxocology and the new Quantum Biology will help me find a new and broader perspective. This, hopefully, will lead to some answers on why we lose so many of our beloved friends to cancer.

I hope in the next few years to slowly hand my Holistic/Integrated practice over to two competent holistic veterinarians. This should create the space for me to be fully engaged in research, using an integrated approach, into the cause of immune related cancer (which most cancers are).

PROJECT SCOPE

Phase 1

Making a data base of the types of cancer documented in our canine population; Breed, age and sex distribution of each type of cancer; Treatment performed and outcome; Previous health status if available, vaccinations, diet, environment; Clinical description on the progress and expression of the disease; Genetic predisposition. Organizing the symptoms into Chinese Patterns of Disharmony.

Phase 2

In the next phase I hope to research the cause and development of one form of cancer. My choice is Histiocytosis. Not only because of my promise to "Isla" and other dogs who died of this form of cancer but also because this form of cancer represents my findings in many forms of cancer. There is an immune involvement in the development of most cancers and in Histiocytosis we can clearly see how an innocent immune cell called a histiocyte suddenly takes off into a cancer. It seems to communicate with other histiocytes in the body in a matter of days or weeks and histiocytes in many organs follow suit and multiply uncontrollably. It is not a form of metastasis; it is a form of internal signaling!
Also I hope to translate the data and information gathered from phase 1 into Traditional Chinese Medicine, Homeopathy, Homotoxocolgy and quantum physics/ biology (Bruce Lipton).

Phase 3

This phase will come out of the previous two phases. A university setting is likely the best setting for this final phase.
More in detail research using Malignant Histiocytosis as a model. In Histiocytosis we see a relative innocent immune cell, the histiocytes, suddenly getting over stimulated and taking of into cancer. I belief Histiocytosis is the ideal model to built a new hypothesis on the immune involvement in cancer.
Building a new hypothesis using the above information on the cause of cancer, the involvement of the immune system and why. I hope to test the building of the hypothesis using information/ help from researchers such as Bruce Lipton, Candace Pert and others currently on the leading edge of quantum biology research.

Practical testing and building of the new hypothesis will be done at my own clinic and other members of the Holistic Veterinary Medical Association to increase the data basis.

And finally; The creation of a hypothesis that is plausible and acceptable and testing this new paradigm at university level.