ANIMAL INSTINCT: Dr Rod Straw with a kitten in his care. Picture: Bruce Long Source: The Courier-Mail

THE weimaraner, brown coat as sleek as a seal's, balances expertly on three legs and, head tilted, listens as Rod Straw explains the link between human and canine cancer.

"Dogs and cats have very similar cancers to humans and their responses to treatments are very similar. We can learn a lot about treating humans with cancer by treating animals," he says.

"It's what is called translational medicine. What we do here translates almost directly into the human experience."

The weimaraner blinks his agreement. He knows about cancer, the stump of his missing front leg testament both to its ravages and Dr Straw's surgery.

Dr Straw graduated with a degree in veterinary science from Melbourne in the late '70s, and within a few years decided to move to Colorado in the US, where the principle of specialist veterinary training had taken hold.

"At that stage there was nowhere else to train as a specialist. In Australia, as a vet, you were still a jack of all trades. You did the dogs, the cows, the horses and the cats."

As we talk, Dr Straw guides me through the Brisbane Veterinary Specialist Centre facility he founded at Albany Creek.

"When I talked about starting an oncology centre here in 1995, my colleagues said I was nuts. They said if it was to be anywhere, it would have to be in Sydney or Melbourne but I said no. It would be in Brisbane. They said that it would fail but it didn't," he says, smiling.

We pass through a heavy, radiation-proof door into a large room where a spaniel is undergoing treatment. Dr Straw has the only linear accelerator in the southern hemisphere for animals, pets with cancer being referred to him from around Australia for radium treatment.

"I had the idea of getting like-minded people together and seeing what we could do. It's a formula that works well, to integrate different specialists under the one roof and get a referral system going.

"The information explosion means it is impossible to be a jack of all trades any more. You have to specialise. I just do cancer. There are others here who just do surgery or internal medicine or dermatology or eyes, very much like in the human field.

"Suburban vets do a fantastic job and there's a lot they can do but when it gets across a certain line, you need specialty care. It takes the onus off them to move into areas where they don't feel comfortable and I think owners of animals are accepting this now."

We walk past rows of cages where animals, some on intravenous drips and bandaged, are recovering from surgery. Tails wag and dogs yap as we pass but it's the elephant in the room in the form of veterinary fees that I want to address.

"The costs can be very high," admits Dr Straw, "but people pay, plus there are a lot more people getting insurance these days.

"It's the best gift you can give your animal for $400 or $500 a year, and veterinary fees are expensive. The overheads here are phenomenal. There are about 50 people working here. It's staffed 24 hours a day, every day of the year."

Some people, he concedes, struggle to pay the bills.

"It is tragic when we see people who can't afford it but there are ways around it."

Unwittingly, some pet owners expose their pets to potentially fatal disease.

"Smoking is a big cancer cause for humans," says Dr Straw. "That's a given, but there was a study done that found that cats in smoking households, because they groom, are licking off the carcinogens and as a result had a higher incidence of head and neck cancers."

As with humans, better treatment for disease has seen an increase in longevity.

"Pets are living longer because of better nutrition and what we are seeing now is a lot of geriatric disease with animals like arthritis, degenerative disease and of course cancer is a big one.

"In days gone by, if you got cancer at all and you were a dog, you died."

As with humans, a dog's forebears can have a bearing on its health.

"We have some breeds which have a predilection for certain cancers. We call them the 'B' dogs boxers, bull terriers, bostons and they have a higher incidence of mast cell tumours.

"There was a case in the United States where golden retrievers had a very high incidence of lymphosarcoma. It turned out there was one sire which was sought after by breeders because he had all the classic characteristics of the breed and was a beautiful dog, but he had a cancer gene for lymphoma."

Dr Straw says the owners, as well as their pets, sometimes require care.

"We can offer owners emotional support. These pets are family members and we have people referred from interstate who arrive with their animals."

They are not, he says, as some people might imagine, rich or crazy.

"There's no stereotypical owner. Singles, families, gay, straight it's a cross-section and pet owners get very emotional and upset."

Dr Straw believes that the links between human and animal cancers have the potential to assist research.

"I'd like to get more programs going with the Queensland Institute of Medical Research. Not long ago I was contacted by the Royal Brisbane Hospital's director of radiation because they had a child with a mast cell tumour, a very unusual case in humans. They actually called me to see how we treat dogs."

As I leave, a chorus of barks from Dr Straw's patients farewells me. If they're not all called Lucky, they should be. (The centre can be contacted at bvsc.com.au)
--------
oconnorm@couriermail.com.au