Revealed: The dog breeds at the highest risk of dying from cancer - with ... trends now
A new study reveals the dog breeds with the highest risk of dying from cancer – and it's not good news for owners of medium-sized pups.
By studying canine death records from three different countries, a biologist in California found the flat-coated retriever has the highest risk of cancer mortality.
Overall, medium-sized dogs have a higher risk of developing cancer than the very largest or smallest breeds, the study found.
The Scottish terrier, Bernese Mountain Dog and Bullmastiff also have 'notable risk' of dying from the disease, the expert found.
Meanwhile, breeds with the lowest risk of cancer include Pomeranian, Miniature Pinscher, Shih tzu and Chihuahua.
Overall, medium-sized dogs have a higher risk of developing cancer than the very largest or smallest breeds, the study found
The study was conducted by Leonard Nunney, a professor of biology at UC Riverside in California, and published in the Royal Society Open Science.
'Cancer is a leading cause of death in domestic dogs [but] deaths due to cancer vary widely among breeds,' he says in his paper.
'Some of these breed differences in cancer risk may be due to the effects of inbreeding.'
Professor Nunney analysed dog mortality rates from three different data sets – one of each from the US, the UK and Finland.
For the results, he considered dog breeds that appeared in at least two of the three datasets – 85 breeds in total.
He found that the smallest dogs, including Pomeranians, Miniature Pinschers, Shih tzus and Chihuahuas have about a 10 per cent chance of dying from cancer.
Dalmatians and Bulldogs were among those with a slightly higher risk – around 20 per cent.
By comparison, many relatively large breeds, such as the Burmese Mountain Dog and Bullmastiff, have a 40 to 50 per cent chance of death from cancer.
But the Flat-coated Retriever – a gun dog breed originating from England – had the highest mortality from cancer, at about 60 per cent.
The expert found that the breed gets a type of sarcoma with higher frequency than it should have for its size.
Despite the general trend of small breeds having lower risk, the Scottish Terrier is one small breed with an unusually high cancer death risk, compared with other small breeds.
'Terriers in general get more cancer than expected for their size,' Professor Nunney said.
The flat-coated retriever (FCR) has a significantly elevated rate of death due to cancer (about 60 per cent). Bernese mountain dog (BMD) has around 50 per cent risk, while bulmastiff (BulM) has around 45 per cent and Staffordshire bull terrier (SBT) and Scottish terrier (ScoT) about 40 per cent. Breeds with low levels of cancer are bulldog (BulD) and Dalmatian (Dal)
The Flat-coated Retriever - a gun dog breed originating from England (pictured) - had the highest mortality from cancer
Many relatively large breeds, such as Burmese Mountain Dog (pictured) and Bullmastiff, have a 40 to 50 per cent chance of death from cancer
Much like humans, dogs develop cancer due to genetic factors and environmental stressors.
It's common for cells to acquire errors or mutations as they divide and form copies of themselves – the process that can lead to cancer.
Bigger animals, and those that live longer, have more cells and a longer lifespan during which those cells divide – so they should have more opportunities to acquire
