Canine breast cancer is most common in un-spayed dogs — via healthing_ca
The Breast Cancer Canada survey also found that most Canadian women feel confident in the ability of doctors to diagnose and treat breast cancer, while more than half of men reported not knowing where to find information on breast cancer if they needed it.Researching treatments for cancer in companion animals can bring us closer to a human cure.
announced funding for a new study at the University of Saskatchewan to develop improved diagnostic tools for detecting mammary cancer early in dogs, with Meachem as lead researcher. “We don’t know the exact prevalence in Canada,” she says. “It’s such a complex issue because it is tied into whether the dog is intact or not, and the age at which they’re spayed. The research has shown that if you spay a dog before they go into heat, they have less than one per cent chance of developing a mammary tumour. That risk goes up exponentially after that. If you spay them after the first heat, they have an eight per cent risk. After the second heat they have a 26 per cent risk.
She says mammary tumours typically appear in middle age, around seven or eight years of age, peaking at 11 to 13, depending on the breed. Also, dogs that naturally have a shorter life span tend to develop their tumours at a younger age.