FRESH hope in the fight against canine cancers could be offered to pet owners by York University scientists.

Professor Jo Milner, of the university's Yorkshire Cancer Research P53 research group, said new research could lead to a screening process being developed which could identify dogs with a predisposition to developing cancer.

They could then be excluded from breeding to prevent the condition being passed on.

She said the research would not have been possible without the support of Stamford Bridge vet Matthew Brash.

Prof Milner and PhD student Jeanette Watterson have been studying parts of tumour tissue samples taken from dogs at the Battle Flatts surgery. Pet owners gave their permission for this to take place.

Much of their research centres on the protein called P53, which occurs naturally in the body and suppresses the development of cancer.

If the P53 gene is damaged, it cannot function as well, and this is when cancer can begin to develop. In humans more than half of cancers have a P53 link.

Prof Milner said: "The P53 gene is a very similar gene in different animals so far studied.

"Dogs have a high incidence of cancer and very little is understood about why this should be. We set out to investigate the possibility that some of the tumours may involve the mutation of P53."

She said the first step in the process had been to clone and sequence the dog P53 gene and she said they had found this gene was very similar to the human P53.

The next step had been to find out if the P53 gene was abnormal in dogs with cancer. The samples from Stamford Bridge showed that it was, at an even higher rate than in humans.

The scientists also discovered evidence that certain dogs inherit a mutated P53 gene, which means they could be born with a predisposition to developing cancer, and then pass it on.

Updated: 08:40 Tuesday, October 02, 2001