Scott Carter Foundation Memorial Lectureship
Posted on the 09 May, 2011 at 9:30 am
Written by Amanda in News
The Scott Carter Foundation is proud to have recently sponsored a symposium featuring Bernard Séguin, DVM, MS, dip ACVS. You can read his bio here.The symposium was at the University of Oregon Health & Science Center, which meant a trip to Portland, Oregon for some of us involved with the foundation. Dr. Charles Keller put together the symposium, and gave us tours upon tours of the facilities at OHSU. Look for more posts to come on all that we were able to see and learn while we were there, but I’ll start with the reason for the trip: the lecture.
Scott’s grandfather, Dr. Paul Compton, had the pleasure of introducing the guest speaker. Dr. Compton is such a valuable resource for the foundation with all of his medical knowledge. In addition to being Scott’s grandfather and friend, he was the one who first diagnosed Scott’s osteosarcoma. We were so pleased that he was able to join us on the trip to Portland.
Dr. Séguin spoke on “Why Treating Man’s Best Friend is Good For Everyone”. He opened with a startling statistic: those in the age group of 10-40 years old with osteosarcoma have not seen their life expectancy improve in the last 30 years. Translation: If a child were to be diagnosed with osteosarcoma in 2011, he or she would be faced with the same prognosis that Scott Carter received in 1993.
So, why study osteosarcoma in dogs? Dr. Séguin gave several persuasive reasons. First of all, the incidence in dogs in much greater than in humans. There are 8000 new cases diagnosed in canines each year versus the 600-1000 new cases in humans. Osteosarcoma is 10 times more common in dogs than in humans!
Secondly, this is a naturally occurring disease. We don’t have to “infect” the dog with cancer. We can study what is already occurring. Thirdly, the dog is a much larger animal than the mouse. And larger dogs are close in size to children so they can go through the same diagnostic testing and surgeries that a child would go through. Another reason that may seem obvious is that there are so many more cases in dogs than in humans. There is much more data to be collected, observed and treated. And finally, dogs have a shorter life span than humans so data can be gathered much more rapidly, and therefore reach meaningful conclusions in a shorter period of time.
When a dog is diagnosed with osteosarcoma, while being treated Dr. Séguin acquires a sample of the cancer. It is placed in a Petri dish where it is grown. In the laboratory, researchers treat the tumor with many different drugs and determine which drug is the most effective. The response to the different drugs will vary from one tumor sample to the other. From this they determine which drug is best suited for each patient and therefore provide patient tailored care. They are hopeful that in the near future children will receive care that is suited for their individual needs and will, as a result, respond better to the drugs.
Of course, the ultimate goal is to find a cure. The Foundation is so proud to have supported many fellows, researchers and now lectures. Our goal, which was really Scott’s goal, is to find a cure for cancer. We can’t do that without your continued support. If you are interested in making a donation to The Scott Carter Foundation, you may now do it quickly and easily online. Just click this link and follow the instructions.
To watch the lecture in it’s entirety, click here. If you are interested in learning more about Dr. Séguin, check out his website.
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