Most research into cancer is carried out using non-animal methods such as cell culture,
computer modelling or using lower organisms such as yeast but we still need to use animals to
find out things such as how and why secondary tumours spread through the body.
Today the main treatments for cancer use surgery with radiotherapy and chemotherapy (drugs)
to kill the cancer cells. Chickens, rats, mice and rabbits have been used to develop these treatments.
One of the serious and very unpleasant side effects of cancer treatment used to be severe nausea
and vomiting but new drugs have been developed which prevent this side effect. The development
of these drugs required the use of ferrets.
Without the use of animals the treatments now being used would not be available and progress
towards our understanding of cancer and the development of new treatments and possibly cures
would be very severely affected.
Because many cancers have a genetic element the study of the action of human genes in mice, so called transgenic mice, is proving to be a powerful research tool in helping our understanding of cancer.
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