Why Biomedical Animal Research is Important

On Friday, April 10, 1992, at 4:30 pm, my mother had an MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging). The result was a horrifying–a large mass in her brain was evident from the MRI scan. Two hours later, my mother was admitted into Barrow Neurological Institute and scheduled for surgery on Monday, April 13, 1992.

Monday arrived and, as scheduled, my mother went in for surgery. My grandmother and I sat in the waiting room for seven of the longest hours of our lives. When the doctor came to speak with us, he had devastating news. First, the tumor had to be sent to pathology to find out what kind of tumor it was, but from the way it looked, he said that is was most likely a malignant glioblastoma-multiforme.

He proceeded to explain that the glioblastoma-multiforme is grade 4–the most deadly kind of brain tumor. Further, he emphasized that unless she received immediate treatment, she would only live two to six months. Most patients with the same type of tumor extend their longevity seven to fourteen months after being treated with chemotherapy and/or radiation therapy. I was hysterical, and could not stop thinking that my mother had to be here and share my experiences with me. I thought to myself that there had to be something the doctors could do to save my mother–my best friend.

Surgery was the beginning of our long and traumatic ordeal. The doctor removed a tumor a little larger than the size of a golf ball, but had to leave some of the tumor inside her brain so she would still be able to walk, see and talk.

The next procedure took place a month after her first surgery. She had radioactive beads implanted into the bed of the tumor and the beads remained in the tumor for a week. This was to kill as much cancer cell and as little normal brain cell as possible.

At the beginning of July of the same year, my mother underwent radiation therapy. We went for her treatments every morning, five days a week, for forty-five treatments. By this time, the tumor had not grown and five months had gone by.

After a few months of little or no change, her oncologist decided that it was time for chemotherapy treatment. She had three doses of BCNU, but needed eight. Her blood platelets could not handle the poison, so the dilemma resulted in three different blood platelet transfusions.

After nineteen months of little change in the tumor, a second tumor appeared on the opposite side of the original site. This is when my mother slowly began to deteriorate. Her doctors were afraid if they operated on her, more damage would have been done than good. They decided to try a non-invasive procedure that used gamma rays to "zap" the second tumor.

For approximately three months, the second tumor did not grow. Then, my mother lost all of her peripheral vision and could no longer drive. Form that point on her condition slowly worsened and worsened to the point where she could no longer use her eating utensils or even walk.

My mother died in our house, holding my hand, on August 4, 1994. She lived for twenty-eight months even though they predicted that she would live no more than fourteen months. My mother amazed her doctors because of her stamina. In my eyes, my mother came out winning. She gained an extra fourteen months that she would never have had, if she were not such a fighter.

The surgery, radiation, gamma rays, and chemotherapy extended my mother’s life and would not have been possible, or even available, if it were not for biomedical animal research. Not only is animal research used to develop treatment or potential cures for the disease, but for drugs such as BCNU.

Before any drug or treatment is attempted on humans, it has to be tested on animals such as mice, rats, monkeys, etc. Then, the effects, good and bad, must be studied to see if the specific drug or treatment would be effective on humans and what side effects it would cause. In addition to treatments, the completed understanding of the actual cancer cell and diagnosis can only be derived from animal models.

Most Nobel Prize winners in medical sciences in the past thirty years have used animal research in their studies. For example, in 1966, Huggin Rous studied tumor-inducing viruses and hormonal treatment of cancer in rats, rabbits and hens. He won the Nobel Prize. In 1989, Bishop Varmus also won the Nobel Prize by studying the cellular origin of retroviral oncogenies in the chicken.

Chemotherapeutic treatments have been successful in many cases. Today, cancer, such as leukemia, can be cured in most cases. Chemotherapeutic techniques were tested in animals until they were successful in curing the cancer in rodents. The, the technique was used in humans, and proved to be successful.

Animal research is extremely beneficial to the diagnosis, treatment, and curing of all kinds of diseases. If animals had not been used, we would not be nearly as far as we are today in all areas of diagnosing, treating, and even curing, many diseases because there would not be any substantial evidence that a particular drug was successful.

I am convinced that biomedical research prolonged my mother’s life. I an extremely grateful for the experimental treatments performed on animals, and I support further research to the fullest extent.

Balch, Charles M., Bleyer, W. Archie, Krakoff, Irwin H., Peters, Lester J. "The Vital Role of Animal Research in Advancing Cancer Diagnosis and Treatment." The Cancer Bulletin 1990: 266-269.

Biomedical research and other research using animals affects us every day in almost everything we use. Consumers should feel that they can use products without any adverse effects. Cosmetics, hair care, foods, drugs, household cleaners, paints and garden chemicals are animal tested. My household has hundreds of these items. Animal testing for carcinogenicity, reproductive toxicity, neurotoxicity, and mutagenicity is the easiest way to insure the safety of a product and comply with FDA regulations.

As a member of an allergic family, I have seen relatives react to fillers in soap, bleached flour, binders in vitamin pills, and prescribed medicines. Biomedicine has helped to create medicines that reduce the allergic reaction.

Louis Pasteur used animals to develop a successful treatment for rabies. This saves the lives of people and animals. Dr. Jonas Salk’s experiment using Rhesus monkeys resulted in a polio vaccine. This meant millions of children who would have died or been crippled for life are productive adults leading normal lives. My uncle had polio as a child. He now had two adult children, and is a public school teacher.

Animals have been used in scientific research since ancient times to learn about anatomy and physiology. The Hindu culture experimented and dissected animals, yet regarded every living creature as brothers. In thirteenth century England, physicians had to use animals for their research, because the clergy forbade the dissection of human corpses.

Today animals are used instead of humans mainly because of restrictions. In 1964 the World Medical Association (WMA) emphasized, at its international conference, that "Medical research could be based on laboratory and animal experiments or other scientifically established facts." It also stated that "Clinical research must conform the moral and scientific principles that justify medical research."

Another reason to use animals instead of humans is the short life span of laboratory animals. Mice usually only live three years. This allows scientists to perform generations studies that would be impossible to do on humans simply because of longer life spans.

The National Academy of Sciences Natural Resource Council (NRC) performed a three year study on the use of animals in research. Their results stated "animals are a critical part of health care."

The Office of Technology Assessment figures 17 to 22 million animals are used in biomedical research each year while animal rights literature estimates 20 to 70 million. The Office of Technology Assessment shows 90% of this figure are rodents. One to 2% are cats and dogs. The remainder are an assortment of rabbits, hamsters, swine, monkeys, chimps, horses, cattle, and sheep. The estimates on the numbers of animals used in product testing go from a couple of million, to half of all the animals used in research.

Animal Rights groups fail to realize that researchers know that the condition of their animals is directly related to the validity of their experiments. The responses of a mistreated, unduly stressed animal are quite different than the responses of a clean, healthy (mentally and physically) animal. Unnecessary pain or distress can produce unwanted variations in the data. These variations interfere with the interpretations of the experiment or study. Only the misguided, inexperienced or negligent researcher would mistreat his or her animals. It is not wrong to use animals in research. It is wrong to have laws and rules that keep abusive scientists in the laboratory. The ultimate goal of medicine is to improve the quality of life, both human and animal. This goal cannot be met without exhaustive research into disease, product testing, and the chemical relationships inside and outside the body. Biomedical research is trying to achieve this goal.

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