When did we start doing bone marrow transplants in dogs?

Many people, including veterinarians, are not familiar with the BMT literature that describes dogs receiving bone marrow transplants in a research setting. Would you believe me if I told you that these were performed starting in the 1960s?
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The history of bone marrow transplants began with the observation in 1946 that victims of atomic bombs in World War II, who appeared unharmed initially, went on to develop “atomic bomb disease”, which was the result of bone marrow death. This observation gave an MD named E. Donnal Thomas the idea about bone marrow transplantation being able to replace damaged bone marrow.

In the early 1960s, Dr. Thomas’s group at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, WA reported studies of using bone marrow transplants to treat people with acute leukemia, which was 100% lethal at that time. Their initial transplants were a complete failure, with most patients dying from either graft failure or recurrent leukemia.
These disappointing results caused abandonment of the idea that bone marrow transplant could be used to treat acute leukemias.
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After these failures, his group decided to use dogs as a preclinical model for human BMT and, after many years of experiments, proved that some dogs can be treated and/or cured of lymphoma using both autologous or allogeneic BMTs. In fact, 95% of all human BMT protocols were first developed in dogs! His group finally won the Noble Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1990 based on this seminal work.

Based on this large body of research, Dr. Suter, a cofounder of CTAC, opened a canine BMT unit at North Carolina State University in 2008. His group performed both autologous and allogeneic BMTs in >150 client-owned dogs with lymphoma since then, again proving that a subset of these dogs can be cured of their disease. Dr. Suter also trained Dr. Gareau in this field, who is now the Medical Director of CTAC. He is extremely excited to cofound and provide his extensive experience in operating a canine BMT/apheresis unit in the private practice setting here in Chattanooga!

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Homemade Canine Treats

With 3 Easy Ingredients

INGREDIENTS:

½ cup of Natural Peanut Butter

** (Be careful! Some peanut butter has xylitol, wood sugar, birch sugar, and birch bark extract. All of these ingredients are TOXIC to your dog!)**

2 medium ripe bananas

2 cups of 1-minute oats

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Preheat your oven to 300F (150C). Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. Add the oats to a food processor and grind until they reach a fine powder. (If you do not have a food processor, using oat flour is an alternative). Add the bananas and peanut butter and blend until a sticky dough is formed.
3. Remove from the food processor and roll out on a lightly floured surface. (Use whole wheat flour, more ground oats, or another dog-safe flour that you have on hand to stop the dough from being too sticky, adding more as needed). I used a heart cookie cutter to cut out the treats but you could use any cookie cutter, or just cut them into squares with a knife or pizza cutter.
4. Lay the treats on the prepared baking sheet and bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until the treats are puffed up a bit, dry and dark brown on the bottoms, (they will still feel soft when first removed from the oven). The treats will get a bit more firm once they are cool but will still be a slightly softer dog treat. Let cool before giving one to your pup. Store in an air-tight container at room temperature for up to 1 week, in the fridge for up to 2 weeks, or I like to store them in my freezer which makes them firmer and makes them stay fresh a long time.