Identifying Potential Environmental Cancer Risks in Dogs (Interactive Session)

When internists and oncologists diagnose cancer in dogs, we are typically focused on staging and phenotyping the tumors. However, we rarely gather information from pet owners that might uncover environmental causes for specific cancers such as bladder cancer, lymphoma, and other tumors with clear environmental risk factors in people. This session will present new data on environmental risk factors for lymphoma and bladder cancer in dogs, and will propose the development of a standardized environmental questionnaire to accompany cancer diagnoses in the specialty and primary care setting. The goal is to identify potentially avoidable environmental chemical exposures and support evidence-based cancer prevention policies for dogs and cats.