Cats and dogs cut their owners' cancer risk by a third, researchers say
By Jenny Hope for the Daily Mail
Updated: 15:35 EDT, 8 October 2008
Pet lovers are a third less likely to develop non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, a cancer of the lymphatic system
Owning a pet can reduce the chances of developing a form of cancer by nearly a third, researchers claim.
Animal lovers were much less likely to develop non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, a cancer of the lymphatic system that affects around 9,000 Britons a year.
Scientists at the University of California, San Francisco, and Stanford University, also in California, who carried out the study believe pets help protect against cancer by boosting the immune system.
Previous studies have shown children who have pets take fewer sick days off school because they are more resistant to infections.
Some research even suggests toddlers who grow up around cats or dogs are less likely to suffer allergies or asthma.
Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma, or NHL, affects the lymphatic system, a network of vessels and glands that transports infection-fighting white blood cells round the body.
Cases of NHL rise with age. The average age of newly-diagnosed sufferers is 65, and the most aggressive form of NHL can be fatal.
The numbers affected in the UK have been steadily rising at around four per cent a year for the last 50 years. Experts fear if the trend continues, NHL will be as common as breast or lung cancer by 2025.
Although the exact cause of the increase remains a mystery, one theory is that improved hygiene and sterile living conditions may be to blame.
Recent evidence suggests exposure to allergens and toxins in the environment may actually help to protect the body against certain types of cancer.
In the latest investigation, researchers at the University of California San Francisco and Stanford University, also in California, studied more than 4,000 patients to see if owning a pet slashed their chances of getting cancer.
Just under 1,600 of the volunteers had developed NHL, while the remaining 2,500 were free of the disease.
The results showed pet owners were almost 30 per cent less likely to have cancer than those who had never kept animals.
The longer the family had kept pets, the greater the protection against the disease, the study found.
In a report , published in the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention, the researchers said: 'This large study provides support for a decreased risk between pet ownership and non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma. And it's possible this is related to altered immune function.'
Dr Jodie Moffat, health information officer at Cancer Research UK said: 'This study presents some evidence that owning a pet may reduce the risk of Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma. However much more research is needed to provide a conclusive link.
'Scientists around the world are trying to find out what causes Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma and what affects a person's chances of developing the disease, but there is still a lot to learn.'
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