Statistics show a shocking number: 27% of dogs will die from cancer (www.petmed.net.au, 2014), with 45% of dogs over 10 years being affected by the same outcome (www.dogsnaturallymagazine.com, 2021).
Many more will be affected by some type of cancer throughout their lives and may recover or may die from a different condition or accident before the cancer progresses to a fatal stage. Brennen McKenzie takes citation from the video series “The Truth about Pet Cancer” and claims that “You look back 50 years ago, where some will say that the cancer rate may have been one in 100 dogs.
Today, according to PhDs, the dog has the highest rate of cancer of any mammal on the planet. Literally, from last year, them saying one in two, to this year, one in 1.65 dogs will succumb to cancer” (www.veterinarypracticenews.com, 2018).
The “C” word is dreaded by all animal parents and with over 100 types of cancers, the confusion and lack of understanding is ever prevalent and scary.
So, what is cancer and how does it develop?
This question would have a never-ending reply due to the many types of cancers and variations within them. Cancer research is a continuous progress of finding ways of detecting and treating cancers all the time.
What we know is, that cancer is the result of cells that behave abnormally in the body and when they do, other cells fail to detect and kill them off. The “abnormal” cells now have a chance to grow, multiply and develop into tumours and metastases and this is what we call cancer.
Cells carry genes that act like a “software” to tell the cell what to do, how to function and ultimately how to grow. This is the process of how all living creatures evolve to what they are. Most cells develop appropriately in accordance with their purpose and function. Most genes within a cell are dormant and will not be used until there is a factor that switches certain genes on to “perform”. This depends very much on the environment or situation the cell finds itself in. The environment will be a great influence on how the cell behaves and what genes will be turned on and “express” themselves in order to produce energy. The same cell may produce a very different substance in two different situations. This is how a cell that could have expressed itself to not be cancerous, turns into a cancer cell – because of a certain influencer that changed the genetic disposition in that cell.
Billinghurst states that “genes…depending on the environment…create either health or disease.” He goes on by explaining that “cancer…is the result of the interaction between an individual’s environment and that individual’s genome…its genes…its DNA” (2016, pg. 174).
Our modern dogs are all subject to substances that can lead to cell mutations and disrupt DNA (mitochondria), called “carcinogens” as found in chemicals, pesticides, plastic, polluted air and water, commercial pet food etc.
“Mitochondria are membrane-bound cell organelles (mitochondrion, singular) that generate most of the chemical energy needed to power the cell's biochemical reactions. Chemical energy produced by the mitochondria is stored in a small molecule called adenosine triphosphate (ATP)” (www.genome.gov).
Mitochondria is the genome that can be attacked and altered by the carcinogens. This is important to know as we can then understand that the mitochondria (which is damaged) results in an altered production of energy. This means that the mitochondria change its usual activity pattern and sends out “wrong” signals. These signals control what happens with the cell. Healthy mitochondria tell the cell to remain the same. Damaged mitochondria command the phenotype (which can be seen as the appearance and behaviour of an organism, in this case a cell) to change its normal behaviour and the cell may start to reproduce constantly, turn off gene repair, no longer fulfil its functions of mimicking the parent cell, produce genetic mutations etc.
The fact that cells (and all organisms e.g. a dog’s or human’s body) evolve and are subject to the genes changing and mutating was discovered by Darwin. This is what we call evolution, and we know that this is influenced by internal and external factors (such as the environment). Darwin proved that each species adjusts and adapts throughout evolution according to the environment. The same happens to cells that turn into cancerous cells and this is vital information as we can appreciate the importance of DNA, mitochondria and how we need to keep these healthy in order to avoid cell reproduction and mutations that cause cancer tissue.
Put simply: “Cancer is the result of interactions between our genes and our environment” (Billinghurst, 2016, pg. 116)
There is a variety of factors that can contribute to cancer – most of them are increasing in our modern world and are a part of our society and lifestyle. Our dogs are subject to these without us even realising. Thousands of chemicals swirl around us and our dogs; we absorb them all the time and cannot run away from them in our modern world. Damaging substances are everywhere: pesticides and fertilisers for our laws, washing powder, shampoos, chemicals in collars, pet bedding, vaccines, worming products, air pollutants such as fumes and gases from perfume to cigarette smoke, chemicals leaching from plastic food and drink bowls to synthetic drugs and even “treatments” such as radiation are all non-natural influences on our dogs’ bodies. Pathogens such as bacteria and viruses can cause cancer as they can alter the cell information. And then there is the biggest environmental factor of them all: the food we feed our dogs and cats.
This gives us reason to consider how nutrition can be responsible for cancer in our pets:
While we acknowledge that these environmental factors can be blamed as influencers of the development of cancer cells in the body, we need to delve down deeper and find out why the body cannot cope with these environmental factors. How do they relate to a modern disease which (not very long ago) hardly existed in wild species that thrive purely on their appropriate diet with no or very little interaction of chemicals and modern substances such as vaccines?
The fact that we encounter this disease more and more in our modern society leads to some investigations to see how modern life and lifestyle can contribute to the development of cancers in our canine friends.
As a board veterinary medical cancer specialist, Dr. Sue Ettinger explains that “cancer is not caused by one thing. Causes include genetics, environmental factors, and toxins. It’s a complicated, multi-step process to turn a normal cell into a malignant cancerous one” (www.dogcancerblog.com, 2019).
However when we look at how food is grown, handled and processed before it even makes it to the food manufacturers, we understand that environmental factors and toxins are also present in the ingredients that are used to deliver a modern diet for our dogs.
Modern meat, vegetables and grain growing and farming is done with money in mind and aims at quantity over quality. This means that producers develop and apply more and more pesticides and antibiotics to combat diseases, bacteria and pests in their produce as well as fertilisers and hormones to aid in growth and development of products. Animals and vegetarian food supplies are not grown naturally anymore.
Diane Stein provides a long list of shocking ingredients including toxins and preservatives that can be found in commercial pet food ingredients but do not need to be listed on the packaging. This is often the case when poisonous substances are “hidden” in the ingredients and have leached or changed in their behaviour via food production and processing. She mentions sodium nitrite and red dye no.40, BHA, BHT and MSG, artificial flavourings, lead, salt, sugar and propylene glycol, ethoxyquin, fungi, bacteria and germs and explains their devastating consequences in her book Natural Healing for Dogs and Cats (2000, pg. 51).
Another aspect is the actual ingredients that are in our modern dog’s diet: in order to produce cost effective and practical easy to store and transport food, the pet food industry uses dietary substances that may “feed” the dog e.g. make them feel full but these are not necessarily nutritious substances in the sense of fuelling the health of the body. On top of the list are starchy foods such as grains, soy / legume products, vegetables e.g. potatoes, corn due to their cheapness.
What happens with these items in the body is that the carbohydrates in them convert into sugars when digested. This can give a quick boost of energy, but it is not species appropriate. Therefore, a dog’s body (and its cells in the organs, systems, digestive tract etc.) is not “programmed” to live off theses substances. The cells simply do not have in their DNA what to do with carbohydrates/ sugars and this can cause the mitochondria to malfunction as they are confused and not nourished appropriately. The same goes for other ingredients e.g. fats, high amounts of fruit and vegetable that we find in kibble, canned dog food. Even brands that call themselves “holistic” or “natural” contain amounts of seemingly healthy foods but are high in carbs.
The culprit is the Glycemic Index (GI). This is calculated in relation to how quick the glucose from the sugar enters the bloodstream and what it does to the body (rise in blood sugar). What follows is deterioration due to increase of blood pressure, inability of insulin regulation, pancreas malfunction and enzyme production, inflammation in the body etc. Diseases follow such as obesity, diabetes, pancreatitis, heart disease, cancer and many others. The worst part is that any cell degeneration can cause more problems and then these can link to each other.
Inappropriate foods (and the overconsumption) of these such as fats and carbohydrates as well as added substances (omega 3/6/9, vitamins and minerals) in commercial pet foods can also cause imbalances of nutrients in the body. Some can even lead to malabsorption e.g. high amounts of carbohydrates can hinder calcium intake or inappropriate ratios of essential fatty acids are responsible for cell membrane dysfunction etc. These can add to an already stressed digestive and immune system and end up with chronic inflammation in the body - a disaster as inflammation is a molecular event and increases the chances of mutations, multiplies new blood vessels that can distribute cancer cells, increases cancer stimulating cytokines, suppresses anti-cancer immunity and cancer cell death and increases tissue permeability (www.dogsnaturallymagazine.com, 2021). Inflammation basically “fuels” the cancer.
What’s more is that although the ingredients look “healthy” on the packaging (e.g. meat, fruit, vegetables, some grains and/or legumes), the process of preserving them to make them easy to store and handle “kills” and alters the ingredients’ nutritional values.
For instance, when protein is heated (processed) at very high temperatures e.g. to produce dry food, a substance called Heterocyclic Amines (HAs) is created and this is highly dangerous as it is a potent mutagen or also referred to as a carcinogen. HAs have been scientifically tested as inducers of tumours (www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov). Another example for the change of substances when heated is carbohydrates that transform into glycotoxins - as part of the name suggests, these are toxic and react with the cells because they stick to the outside of the cell and accumulate over time. The older the body gets (human or dog) the more glycotoxins are present.
Besides the dilemma of how certain nutrients, substances and the process of turning them into modern pet food can be responsible to cause cancer in our modern dogs, we also need to look further at how commercial dog food affects our canine’s body in other ways and therefore contributes directly to creating tumours.
The immune system is greatly affected by poor nutrition as its function and well-being relies on nutritional value and species-appropriateness of the food we feed our dogs. This is important in relation to developing and managing cancerous growths in two ways:
Firstly, the immune system is responsible to detect “faulty” cells. Then a series of events take place in order for the abnormal cell to go through what is called “apoptosis”. This process acts like a programmed cell death / suicide when other cells and functions in the body destroy the dangerous mutant cells. If an immune system is functioning less than optimal e.g. due to having to fight off bacteria or yeast overgrowth, has to deal with allergens, malnutrition, digestive dysbiosis or how it responds to other influences such as inflammation, it may not be able to get rid of abnormal cells.
Another consideration is that the immune system acts in relation to the digestive system. If these two systems are not nourished and kept in tiptop shape and in balance with each other, problems can arise that over the long-term can lead to other diseases such as obesity, liver disease, diabetes and many others. Once disease has gotten hold of the body, the immune system is again less able to defend cancerous cells. Once established, the chances of the body’s natural attack system to deal with the cancer diminishes as well. In return, other complications accompany the cancerous state such as chronic inflammation, metastasis may happen and organ damage such as liver, kidney can be the next step. We can go back to the very smallest (but most important detail) that cancer has to do with damaged mitochondria and is a metabolic disease.
Therefore it is paramount to feed a species-appropriate, balanced diet to our dogs to not only prevent cancer but if already present it is even more important to put extra thought and effort into preparing our dog’s meals to support the immune system, combat other diseases and look after the digestive tract so it can do its work.
Once we comprehend the massive importance of nutrition as a therapeutic device in preventing (and treating or managing) cancer, we want to make the comparison to wild dogs, dingoes, carnivores (in captivity) that are fed a species-appropriate diet and find out how much they are subject to cancer.
Astonishingly, cancer is not a fad or occurrence of the modern world. Paul Ewald suggests that “Fossilized bones and mummified tissues … show that malignant transformations have been afflicting human and animal populations for eons … pathogen-induced cancers were probably generally present in ancient historic and prehistoric human populations” (www. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov, 2017).
Cancerous cells are just part of biology and evolution and the occurrence of cancer has increased as part of evolution in the modern world. We know now that all cells are programmed with DNA and this has been the case since the beginning. What steers the DNA and what happens with the cell is the mitochondria and the chances of the mitochondria being damaged by environmental factors including diet have exploded due to the lifestyle of our modern world. That is the reason we now see almost half of our canine population die from a malignant neoplastic growth.
So, can we assume that dogs that are feeding themselves with their choice of prey or canines in captivity e.g. zoos that are fed a species-appropriate diet do not suffer from cancer or only in minimal numbers? What about wild animals who live far away from civilisation? We learn from Somayeh Zaminpira that wolves have a much smaller occurrence of cancerous tumours than dogs. Her research goes as far as comparing chimpanzees with humans who of course share almost an identical gene pool but due to their natural diet, the apes have a relatively low statistic of cancer (Journal of Multidisciplinary Engineering Science and Technology, 2017).
As all mammalian animals carry “cancer genes” it depends on the species how much they will be affected due to other genetic facts such as other cells that some animals carry that are prone to destroy cancel cells e.g. in elephants (www.bbc.com, 2015)
We know that some cancers are quite rife and prevalent in wild carnivores such as the Tasmanian Devil and this is a kind of cancer that can spread via a virus with devastating consequences in the wild. In this circumstance, diet may not be the main factor that causes the cancer. Other animals that live a “wild” life (although difficult to observe and evaluate) have been found to suffer from cancerous neoplasms as well. Especially the larger ocean fish as well as whales have been found with cancer and this is related to the environmental toxins they take in through the contaminated water in our ocean. Cancer has even been found in dinosaurs and tapeworms (www.cancerquest.org).
Interestingly, zoo mammals have been found with a much smaller proportion of cancer occurrence according to a study in 1983. It revealed that an average of 3.6% of mammals that lived in captivity in several different zoos and were fed what humans can replicate as much as a species-appropriate diet had been found with neoplastic growths (Neoplasia in Zoo Animals, 1983).
These facts and figures show us that cancer is everywhere and has been around since the start of evolution. We cannot avoid it as it is part of genetics and circumstances beyond our control. We can see that modern life with toxins and chemicals influences affect mammals (humans, dogs and wild animals included) all over the world even in the wild. However, we can see that even though all animals are subject to cancer, the ones that live off a species-appropriate diet are less likely to die from cancer.
Therefore, we need to be aware of the fact that our dogs’ modern diet can be blamed (to a large proportion) for a disease that has become quite “modern”
However, if we look at diet from a species-appropriate aspect we see that there is great value in the approach to using nutrition for healing from cancer.
Scientists have developed many different methods of trying to heal humans and pets (and all animals in general) from cancer. They concentrate on the type and stage of cancer that the dog is diagnosed with and use therapies such as chemotherapy, drugs, radiation, surgery etc. to combat cancer.
However, these often have little or devastating side effects. Even “cured” from a cancer can possibly mean that cancer comes back in a different form.
Oncologists focus on destroying the cancer growth whereas scientist who work within nutritional biology realise that cancer has to do with the diet we feed our dogs. They use this knowledge in order to find solutions to halt or even reverse the tumours.
Although there are dozens of types of cancer and what they cause and how they behave in the body can be a very different outcome, we need to look at the beginning of how cancer cells start in order to understand that all types of cancers have in common that they have a malfunction in mitochondria. Billinghurst sums it up for us: “Cancer is just ONE disease… a mitochondrial…metabolic and degenerative disease!” (2016, pg. 522).
Therefore we can use food as medicine, as food is in fact the fuel that drives the body and nourishes each cell – if we use good fuel, the body will function properly, if we feed improper food, the body or cells will malfunction.
The most amazing scientific background on this fact was established by Otto Warburg in the early 1950’s after decades of researching why cancer cells behave differently to normal cells. He found the cause of cancer has to do with the metabolic function of how cancer cell “feed”. In order to survive, duplicate, grow and spread, cancer cells need to produce energy and they do so by using sugars from the diet (mostly from carbohydrates). They do this by a type of fermentation of the sugars whereas normal cells don’t use this mechanism to produce energy but operate with “aerobic respiration”.
The big difference here is, that cancer cells need sugars in high quantities to be fuelled. The mitochondria is the “director” of the cell that programs how to produce energy and Warburg’s theory confirmed that cancer was the direct result of mitochondrial dysfunction as it orders the wrong energy production program. Sadly, Warburgs efforts in researching cancer were mostly dismissed but are being re-confirmed by scientists nowadays. His theory that sugar fuels the cancer is backed by the fact that a cancer cell has up to 200 times as many insulin receptors than a normal cell. This means that a cancer cell is built to crave sugar e.g. in the form of carbohydrates (as well as from other nutrients). The insulin receptors act like a portal to let the sugars into the cells (from the bloodstream). Insulin is a growth factor that promotes cancer as it transports the intake of sugar directly into the cell. This also results in higher insulin production by the pancreas. These two factors become a dangerous cycle and back each other up – more insulin means more sugar means better access to the cancer cells means more fuel for the cancer to grow. Therefore, we need to keep the insulin production in the body low and can achieve this by reducing glucose in the body. Lowering glucose and insulin will also come with other benefits such as reduction in inflammation and less chances of diabetes.
Knowing what fuels the cancer, gives us power to study what could potentially kill it. Could it be as simple as starving the cancer? In order to starve the cancer, we need to withhold the energy source which is mostly derived from carbohydrates and transformed into glucose. This applies to 90% of cancer cells. However, the other 10% are able to utilise protein that can turn into energy = glutamine once the cell has been deprived of the glucose. This is a problem in a carnivorous diet as it is high in meat and therefore protein. Protein is known to be a growth enhancer and therefore cancer cells can use it to grow as well. We need to be careful to lower the protein intake in conjunction with limiting glucose intake and insulin production as the liver can perform what’s called “glucogenesis” which means sugar production from protein when insulin and glucose are too low.
When the cancer does not have enough sugar available it will go for the next best thing and that is protein as an energy source. Erin Bannink simply states that it is as easy as “making the body as inhospitable to that cancer growth as we can. And food is really one of the main ways that we can do that.” (The Cancer Series, 2016, pg. 59)
What is left as an energy source is fat. This is exciting as we have been made to think that fats are bad for us and our dogs. But reality is, that normal healthy cells can utilise fat as an energy source and thrive on it. By restricting carbohydrates, limiting protein and increasing fats in a dog’s diet, we can provide a diet that is healthy, nourishing and at the same time can starve cancer. This phenomenal diet is called ketogenic diet. The secret to this diet is that it produces ketones which can be used by the body for energy. However (and this is the important part), ketones can only be utilised by cells that contain healthy mitochondria which excludes cancer cells as their mitochondria have been damaged (and that’s why they turned into cancer cells). Therefore, the cancer cells cannot derive energy from carbohydrates or proteins and cannot utilise fats as an energy source and so they will starve.
The keto pet sanctuary for dogs has gathered extensive proof of how a ketogenic diet works in favour of canine cancer patients. Since 2014 they have adopted numerous dogs with terminal cancer of which many survived for a much longer time than predicted by their vets. These patients have also had an increase in overall health due to lower blood sugars, decrease in inflammation etc. and some were cured of diabetes, pancreatitis and other debilitating diseases. The sanctuary feeds their animals purely on a ketogenic diet and coupled with testing and in some cases therapies such as chemo or radiation has had a lot of success in using diet as targeted nutritional therapy.
If a ketogenic diet is so successful in potentially treating cancer patients through diet, we need to ask ourselves if we can use the same principles to prevent neoplastic growths in the body in the first place. For our dogs we surely need to consider how a species-appropriate diet can be used to avoid cancer as opposed to feeding a modern commercial pet diet.
Australians are now investing an estimated $2.6 billion a year - more than ever - on the health of their pets. Expenditure at veterinary clinics rose by 19% in the past three years, and spending on pet insurance boomed by 56% over the same period (Newgate Research, 2019)
Surely, cancer is not only an emotionally draining disease for dog parents but also a costly one that often cannot be won with conventional medicine. Prevention has to be the key and as we need to feed our dogs anyway, let’s feed them with what can heal them or prevent disease.
It all starts with overall good health and balance in the body. Diseases do not happen overnight but have an onset. A series of internal events happen before we can see symptoms and signs of ill-health. Cancer is no different to that. Once the balance (homeostasis) is in turmoil, things can go wrong in the body and therefore we need to keep everything in check as best as possible.
Not being able to cope with “faulty” cancer cells is also linked to an immune system that is burdened by non-natural substances and therefore has debilitated and malfunctions at times. A weak immune response relates to an unhealthy gut and this will be detrimental in any state of disease but nutrition can be a key point when fighting cancer as we now know that environmental factors, including the food we feed our dogs, is responsible for cell behaviour and development. The immune function is the first form of offense when it comes to detecting and fighting off faulty / cancerous cells. The health of the digestive system is also paramount: what the body absorbs, how it converts it into useful energy and nutrients to produce and feed cells, how balanced the intestinal homeostasis is and therefore able to do its job are dependent on the nutrients we feed our dogs.
Our canine friends evolved with a diet that is far from what we can offer them nowadays in a modern society. To recreate what is species-appropriate we need to mimic a “wild” diet as much as we possibly can in our modern society. Feeding ingredients raw (meats, bones and organs) and making substances absorbable e.g. vegetable matter needs to be fermented or blitzed in a blender is a good fundament for a diet that is far from commercial packaged foods for our pets.
We also need to look at psychological as well as physiological aspects that a diet has to offer. For instance, our dogs need to chew on bones to release hormones that make them feel satisfied and give signals that their body is nourished. Crunching on bigger pieces of meat and bones provides some gentle exercise and dental health which is also linked to internal health. Not having to hunt for food means that our pooches do not get enough natural exercise and we need to take this into consideration when thinking about diet and the relation of metabolism and its functions. Only when our dogs exercise healthily can their metabolism digest and convert the good food we put into them. That is why a good exercise regime also helps prevent other diseases from happening and this is paramount when trying to avoid the dreaded “C”.
Another significant point is to remember that our dogs are hunters and scavengers and this would not only give them appropriate exercise but also provide them with periods of fasting. During times without food, the digestive system can take a break from its hard work, other systems e.g. lymphatic can go through a detox and the whole digestive and immune system has a chance to re-balance which restores homeostasis throughout the body.
Fasting also influences calorie restriction. Too many calories mean constant insulin production with the result of obesity, diabetes, liver disease etc. Calories are not all the same. Calories from fats are much healthier and can therefore be utilised better than calories from carbohydrates and sugars. The source of calorie is important as this makes for a higher ketone count and that means the cancer grows slower or starves.
Calorie restriction, fasting and rigorous exercise are all linked and help the body to go into “Ketosis”, the metabolic state that allows the cells to produce energy from fats rather than sugars. While a ketogenic diet may not be ideal in every situation e.g. pregnancy or to be used permanently due to its low ingredients list and possible long-term nutrient insufficiently, it certainly helps the body to go into ketosis every now and then just like a “tune-up” and to loose weight, switch up the metabolism, detox and prevent cells with damaged mitochondria from developing.
While a low carb diet is restricting the intake of vegetables and fruit, we do need to feed our dogs some of these for their amazing anti-cancer properties. Moderation and opting for low GI vegetarian matter is the key. Seeds e.g. flax, chia or hemp, mushrooms, vegetables from the cruciferous family, sea vegetables such as nori or spirulina, herbs e.g. turmeric, ginger (highly anti-inflammatory) but also parsley, coriander etc., berries (careful with high carbohydrates) and leafy greens (spinach, watercress, celery etc.) all have different nutrients that promote good health and by saying that help inhibit inflammation, overweight, nourish the body with much needed nutrients for all functions in the body including cancer-fighting. Some greeneries contain angiogenesis blockers and prevent the growth of blood vessels in tumours, others support (faulty) cell suicide.
During our mission of preventing cancer, we also need to remember that all products whether they come from animals or are vegetarian should be as “chemical-free” as possible. Something that is almost impossible in our modern society as we can buy organic lettuce but it may be packaged in plastic. The same applies to the water we offer our dogs, filtered water or rainwater is far superior to ordinary (chemically induced) tap water and can also contribute to the fight against cancer.
Nutritional considerations certainly are the most important aspect when thinking about preventing and / or dealing with cancer in our modern dogs. While it is not only the food that we present them with and how it is derived and made available to them, we need to remember that it is everything around them that can be “toxic” and cause cancer to establish in a body.
But food is less toxic than drugs so we would be wise to use its power to prevent or combat cancer as much as possible or at least to keep canine cancer patients as comfortable and physically (and emotionally) empowered during times of the disease. This disease can be managed without toxic interference such as radiation or chemotherapy if we use nutrition as a healing agent to strengthen the body as long as we look at the tumour as a response to something that has been going on in the body e.g. previous disease or dysbiosis and don’t just see the cancerous growth as something that we need to destroy.
References:
· Author unknown, 5.2014, Common Dog Diseases & Dangers (Cancer), published on www.petmed.net.au, http://www.petmed.net.au/dog-breeds/australian-cattle-dog/#:~:text=Research%20shows%2027%25%20of%20all,of%20deaths%20in%20older%20dogs.
· Author unknown, date unknown, www.genome.gov, https://www.genome.gov/genetics-glossary/Mitochondria#:~:text=Mitochondria%20are%20membrane%2Dbound%20cell,called%20adenosine%20triphosphate%20(ATP).
· Author unknown, date unknown, Cancer in wild animals, published on www.cancerquest.org, https://www.cancerquest.org/cancer-biology/cancer-wild-animals#:~:text=A%20cancer%20similar%20to%20DFTD,be%20able%20to%20do%20so
· Bannink, Erin Dr. 2016, The Cancer Series Chapter #5 The New Hope, published by Planet Paws Media LLC, USA
· Billinghurst, Ian Dr. 2016, Pointing the bone at cancer, Warrigal Publishing Bathurst, Australia
· Dressler, Demian Dr. 11.1.2021, Canine Cancer Lessons: 11 Tools for Prevention, published on www.dogsnaturallymagazine.com, https://www.dogsnaturallymagazine.com/canine-cancer-lessons-11-tools-for-prevention/
· Ettinger, Sue Dr. 20.11.2019, Diet and Dogs with Cancer published on www.dogcancerblog.com, https://www.dogcancerblog.com/articles/full-spectrum-cancer-care/dog-cancer-diet/diet-and-dogs-with-cancer/
· Ewald, Paul W. 23.9.2017, Ancient cancers and infection-induced oncogenesis, published on www.pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29778408/
· Hogenboom, Melissa 31.10.2015, The animal that doesn’t get cancer, published on www.bbc.com, http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20151031-the-animal-that-doesnt-get-cancer
· McKenzie, Brennen 2.10.2018, Is Cancer increasing in our Dogs?, published on www.veterinarypracticenews.com https://www.veterinarypracticenews.com/evidence-based-medicine-october-2018/
· Newgate Research, October 2019, Pets in Australia: A national survey of pets and people, Animal Medicines Australia Pty Ltd , https://animalmedicinesaustralia.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/ANIM001-Pet-Survey-Report19_v1.7_WEB_high-res.pdf
· Seyfried, Thomas Dr. 2016, The Cancer Series Chapter #5 The New Hope, published by Planet Paws Media LLC, USA
· Stein, Diane 2000, Natural Healing for Cats and Dogs, Crossing Press, U.S.A.
· Zaminpira, Somayeh Ms.c. and Niknamian, Sorush Bs.c July 2017, Comparison of Cancer Incidence in Domesticated Versus Wild Animals, as the New Insight into the Cause and Prevention of Cancer in Humans, Journal of Multidisciplinary Engineering Science and Technology, Volume 4, Issue 7, file:///C:/Users/chris/AppData/Local/Packages/microsoft.windowscommunicationsapps_8wekyb3d8bbwe/LocalState/Files/S0/1206/Attachments/JMESTN42352028[4743].pdf
· Zheng, Wei M.D., Ph.D. and Lee, Sang-Ah Ph.D, 1.1.2010, Well-done Meat Intake, Heterocyclic Amine Exposure, and Cancer Risk, published on www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2769029/