The Spokesman-Review from Spokane, Washington • 28

the the the the the the the the the the the the a a a a a a a a a Brandy, a Labrador suffering from cancer of the lymph nodes, is one of many dogs dog's sake and advancing our knowledge of most prone to cancers of all types: human cancer." Boxers, St. Bernards, Airdale terriers, ScotDr. Stanley B. Coe of Elliott Bay Animal Hos- tish terriers and Basset hounds. pital says he's referred several dogs to the cen- "Dogs and cats are exposed to the same types ter, including Luther, a dog sent home to his of environmental carcinogens that people are," owners in 1977 after center doctors amputated a says Ladiges.

leg and arrested his cancer with additional "They eat basically the same types of foods. treatment. pro the city inhale the same types of things. the first time you mention it to peo- Potentially they are exposed to everything that ple, their reaction is they don't want their dogs man is." experimented on," says Coe. "But we explain In May, Ladiges and doctors involved in a new what's done and usually after they talk to (the "donor dog" program sent letters to local dog doctors) they lose their fears about that.

clubs, seeking normal dogs they can test on a "(The doctors) let them come in and visit their regular basis in a "tissue typing" program. They dogs and the work is done very humanely. hope the typing will help provide data for more Two of the other treatments currently being accurate matches between donors and recipients tested on dogs: in bone marrow transplants. Immunoabsorption. Here doctors draw While new drugs are available that help comblood from a tube inserted in an artery and run bat the body's reaction to mismatched marrow, the blood through a mechanism designed to re- "we ideally want to start with as close a match move substances they think may prevent the pa- as possible so we don't have to use heavy doses tient's body from destroying its own cancerous of drugs," Ladiges said.

tumor. Appelbaum says the results are "encour- They also hope blood samples drawn regularly from the donor dogs will help them unravel blood cells are taken from healthy genetic clues about the body's own immune reanimals, "educated" to fight cancer and given to sponse system. dogs. say the procedure works In a letter sent to dog breeders, Ladiges exin mice but has not been proven in larger ani- plains, "Our research interests include comparmals. ing spontaneously occurring cancer in dogs with Particularly valuable to the research are dogs similar types occurring in humans and attemptwith lymph, breast or other solid tumors whose ing to develop means of preventing and treating decrease in size can be measured readily.

this cancer using the patient's own immune sysNationwide has shown some breeds tem." of dogs more susceptible to cancer than others So far, they have tested five or six litters and some types of cancer more prevalent in one all the pups in each litter, plus the sire and dam breed than another. in their effort to find dogs with the same "You'll never see bone cancer in a genetic makeup. Chihuahua," says Appelbaum, "but you'll often Ladiges says he expects to test 100 to 200 dogs see it in a Great and come up with a study group to 20. Dogs most often develop bone cancer in the The center either will purchase the dogs as forelegs, where they bear 60 percent of their reference animals or visit them regularly to weight, and studies suggest a relationship be- draw blood samples. tween such cancer and both weight-bearing and In previous tests, doctors have come up with a large growth, he said.

panel of dogs representing 12 different cell tisData gathered for the National Cancer Insti- sue types. But they figure there are a number of tute from 15 veterinary colleges in the United other types, which they hope to identify through States and Canada show the following breeds the donor dog program. Spokane, Aug. 19, 1981. THE SPOKESMAN- REVIEW C13 Canine cancer victims unleash medical secrets By KATHY McCARTHY Associated Press SEATTLE Labradors with leukemia and Great Danes with bone cancer enable doctors at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center to test experimental treatments they hope can help human cancer victims.

Now the doctors are canvassing dog breeders to find a group of dogs whose blood they can sample on a regular basis in hopes of unlocking some genetic secrets governing the body's 1 response cancer. Canine patients referred to the Seattle center by veterinarians around the Northwest have helped the doctors refine such techniques as bone marrow transplants, which have proved beneficial in fighting human leukemia and aplastic anemia. Dogs also helped prove it is possible to 1 remove a patient's own bone marrow, freeze it, provide total body radiation to kill all cancer cells, then return the marrow to the patient's body. That technique, called an autologous bone marrow transplant, has been used on humans in the past three years. The marrow must be removed to protect it from the deadly radiation.

With his bone marrow destroyed, the patient can die from infection or bleeding. When the treatments work, the cancer-free dogs are returned to their owners. The autologous marrow transplant, for instance, works about a quarter of the time on canine cancer cases, said Dr. Fred Appelbaum, principal investigator in the tumor dog program. "We've got a long, long way to go but we're curing 20-25 percent of animals who otherwise would die," he said of that technique.

In the last three years, autologous marrow transplants also have been used on humans. "It can produce cures (but) it's still experimental," Appelbaum said. Vicky, a 30-pound English bulldog with lymphocarcoma, was one of those to benefit from an autologous marrow transplant. Referred last January by her veterinarian in Seaside, Vicky had two-inch tumors in each lymph node, with the largest tumor measuring 4x5 inches. Without treatment, Appelbaum said she would have had a life expectancy of one to two months.

Appelbaum remembers Vicky fondly, both because her story had a happy ending and because of the incongruity of greeting a tough-looking bulldog with a cheery "Hi, Vicky!" First Vicky was given two weeks of chemotherapy to send her cancer into remission. Then, under general anesthesia, her bone marrow cells were drawn out of the long bones in her fore and hind legs and frozen. Radiation killed the last lingering cancer cells and the marrow was returned. Vicky went home two weeks later and continues to do well, Appelbaum said. In the six years of the current tumor dog program, the center has treated some 1,200 animals, and now averages more than 100 a year.

The program is funded by a National Cancer Institute grant. Appelbaum refuses to estimate a cure ratio, saying it varies with the type and stage of cancer as well as with the treatment used. "We try experiments on the dogs that we're unwilling to try yet on humans," Appelbaum said. "Our therapies are evolving and we try to use the best therapy (on the dogs). But we may try something new that will be worse than the old therapy." Dr.

Warren Ladiges, a veterinarian on the dog research team, says the center's dog research facilities exceed federal standards. "As a vet I have a good feeling (about the program)," he said. "I'm treating the cancer for the dogs treated at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. Nobody knows the trouble he's seen SEATTLE (AP) In a world of sad animal stories, Luther's life reads like a canine soap opera. But the bottom line, as his owner Joan Sheriff likes to say, is this: Luther is a survivor.

And he's helped advance human cancer research while tacking additional years on his own life. The story starts at the Seattle Center where Luther, a tiny black puppy barely old enough to open his eyes, was either lost or abandoned. He was rescued by two pregnant young women from the Catherine Luther home for unwed mothers, Mrs. Sheriff recalls. They took him to the home, but were told he couldn't stay.

The Sheriffs, who knew young woman at the home, agreed to take in the dog, naming him both after the home and for Martin Luther King Jr. Within two weeks Luther, a Laborador-terrier mix with a "Fu Manchu moustache," had disappeared. But the Sheriffs recruited a posse of newsboys who found him and brought him home. Enough trauma for one dog? Not quite. When Luther was six, his left front leg began paining him.

"It seemed like arthritis and they gave us pills to give him," Mrs. Sheriff recalls. "But it seemed like he needed them all the time. "We took him in and you could see the joint was just disintegratStanley Coe of the Elliott Bay Animal Hospital suggested the ing." Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center tumor dog program. Center doctors amputated Luther's leg at the shoulder and his cancer was treated for the next year to prevent a reoccurrence.

He just passed the four-year anniversary of his operation. Mrs. Sheriff has nothing but praise for the cancer research center doctors. "They've just been marvelous. They kept checking him for free for two years," she says.

"We were so pleased with their As Luther, "he's slowed down a little now he's 10 years old," says Mrs. Sheriff, "but he's a very solid, well-adjusted dog who does what he wants to do. He's a survivor." Financially depressed town 'malled' By BRYN BEORSE The Daily World ABERDEEN, Wash. Hardly a community in the United States has been untouched by the "malling of America," but the advent of a large, closed shopping complex in an area as remote as Grays Harbor has provided a graphic example of this post-World War II phenomenon. General Growth Corp.

of Des Moines, Iowa, opened the SouthShore Mall in Aberdeen Aug. 5. The multi-million dollar center, with room for up to 80 retailers, including three department stores, occupies 50 acres of former swamp on the city's South Side. The investment made by the developer of the mall is particularly noteworthy in view of the economic conditions prevailing on Grays Harbor. But General Growth President John Batesole is confident: "First of all, I don't think your situation is that much worse than many other communities.

We knew that the economy was based partially on lumber. We have always been, and still are, confident." Grays Harbor's economy rests heavily on the shoulders of the timber industry, which has been hard-hit by depressed conditions in the housing business nationwide. As a result, unemployment figures have been hovering percent this summer and were higher last winter. One visual effect of the sagging Harbor economy is a sprinkling of empty windows throughout the downtown Aberdeen business district. It may take as long as 18 months, however, to determine if the retailing power of the new SouthShore Mall will stem the weekend exodus of thousands, of Puget Sound-bound Grays shoppers or merely siphon customers away the aging downtown business core and a smaller mall that opened in 1976.

"It'll be interesting next year with the economy in the condition it's in," said Aberdeen City Planner Doug Baker. "Downtown has had businesses go out even without the mall." shoppers at home. Baker says he hopes that's what will happen, although it may need a third big department store to really turn the trick. Sears and J.C. Penney are anchoring both ends, a large chunk of prime floor space has been saved for another major store.

Baker acknowledged that the two major stores already in town will have more to offer in the mall, with more floor space and selection. Downtown, despite the loss of its longtime stalwarts Sears and Penney's can remain competitive if it unifies, builds 'We knew that the economy was based partially on lumber. We have always been, and still are, But Baker said the new mall may reduce for itself and pursues aggresto a less debilitating trickle the steady sive marketing techniques, the city planner stream of Harbor shoppers that flows into said. Olympia, Tacoma and Seattle. Retail Trade Board chairman Larry That would benefit most every other Prickett predicted that downtown will surbusiness in the area, and whether it will vive and prosper since its stores are more come to pass will soon be apparent, the specialized than those found in the typical planner predicted.

mall. "The trick of the whole thing which Skip Strait, economic development could be very for the city is if the chairman for the Chamber of Commerce, new mall increases the share of the pie for said the mall will have a very positive efeverybody and pulls in (tourists)," he said. fect on the Harbor economy. "It won't do the city any good to have the "It's part of the transition of the AberWishkah Mall, the SouthShore Mall and deen-Hoquiam area, which is the retail cendowntown all in trouble." ter for the coast," he said. "People will A study by General Growth indicated come from Raymond, Ocean Shores, Westthat the mall will indeed keep many port a and all through the area to shop here." Strait firmly believes the mall will help plug the hugely expensive retail "leakage" to Capital Mall in West Olympia, South Sound shopping center at Lacey and other major malls along the Interstate 5 corridor to the Puget Sound area.

It will create jobs, he said, and yes, it may create a hardship for some downtown business. "But you can't stop progress," Strait concluded. Despite disputes in the past over how best to and protect the traditional central Preserves district, most downtown merchants are talking a good fight, saying they're ready to give the new mall a run for the money. The city council considered a recommendation that the parking be hooded for the remaining six the year to meters, provide free parking and neutralize one of the mall's advantages. It was decided instead to curtail Saturday enforcement and raise overtime parking fines.

Meanwhile, the downtown retail trade board has received a proposal from Seattle-area consulants Howell, Stouder sociates Inc. for preparing a downtown revitalization plan and general improvement program, listing a study cost of $33,500 to $51,000 over a five-phase program. The city planner said he would like to work with downtown merchants in planning the city's end of such a program, and perhaps the city could "pitch in" somehow. The program calls for intensive research on the downtown in Phase a generalized plan in Phase II, a preliminary design analysis in Phase III, a specific block-by-block plan in Phase IV and detailed implementation plans in Phase V. The proposal gives lists of elements to each step.

In any case, the new mall is certain to attract surrounding commercial development. Baker said that typically, tract apartment developments for those people who like to live near the collections of stores, as well as specialty shops and discount stores. the nice thing about the area; it's all vacant and zoned commercial," Aberdeen City Councilman Rich Patton said, indicating that the growth that followed the lead of the Wishkah Mall is apparent. "I'm really glad to see the The city planner emphasized that services must be increased to handle the impact of the new mall and the neighbors it attracts. Baker said city utilities in the area appear to be up to the task, and a $650,000 road project is under way to handle the motorized brigades of shoppers that will descend daily on the South Side once regarded as the wrong side of the river.

Eventual plans call for a multi-million dollar widening of Boone Street from the Chehalis River Bridge to the city limits. Aberdeen's police and fire chief say they will need more personnel in the mall neighborhood to maintain the present level of protection for residents there. Tasks at the mall have almost completely taken up the time for one building inspector and building permits for the mall have brought in a bonanza in fees..