US pig treated for blood cancer

When George Goldner went to feed his six pet pigs earlier this year, his 331kg companion Nemo was acting strangely. The pig had suddenly stopped eating and just lay in the mud.

So Goldner loaded Nemo onto a trailer and drove more than two hours to Cornell University Hospital for Animals in New York. There he learned his four-year-old Hampshire pig had the blood cancer B-cell lymphoma.

The hospital's researchers said they had never seen a pig treated for cancer. But that did not deter Goldner, who asked doctors to use their knowledge of cancer in dogs and humans and not worry about costs.

Now, four months after Goldner first rushed to the hospital, Nemo has made history as the first known pig to undergo lymphoma treatment - and successfully - leaving researchers with hope for advancements in treating cancer in large animals.

Because pigs had big necks their veins were difficult to access, resident vet Emily Barrell said, making it impossible to deliver many of the aggressive drugs needed for chemotherapy.

The vets consulted with researchers in other fields before implanting a vascular access port, a small metal port with a silicone cover, directly under Nemo's skin behind his ear. The port had a catheter that ran through a jugular vein in his neck, allowing Nemo to receive the sort of cancer treatment administered to dogs and humans.