The Scott Cell Culture Laboratory for Comparative Oncology Research was unveiled September 12, 2006. Dudley McCaw, DVM and professor of veterinary medicine and surgery, was named the laboratory's director. The laboratory will aid faculty in research efforts to understand how cancers afflict humans and animals. The new laboratory is part of the veterinary medical teaching hospital's Tom and Betty Scott Endowed Program in Veterinary Oncology. The endowed program is directed by Dr. Carolyn Henry and is also staffed by oncologists Kim Selting, Jeffrey Bryan, and Dr. McCaw.

The main focus of the laboratory will be to culture cells from tumors that are removed from animals at the veterinary teaching hospital in the normal course of caring for pets. The use of cells harvested when a pet's tumor is excised contributes to efforts to help fight cancer in other pets and in people, yet does not subject patients to any unnecessary or additional procedures. Cell cultures derived from one tumor can be maintained long-term and used for multiple experiments, thus optimizing the amount of information researchers can derive and permitting one patient to contribute to a wealth of information that will hopefully lead to improvements in our understanding and treatment of cancer.

Comparative oncology is the study of both the differences and the similarities in cancer between species in an effort to gain understanding of the causes and progression of cancer. By developing cell cultures from companion animal tumors, MU oncology researchers will be able to directly compare them to those derived from human tumors and further unravel the
mysteries related to cancer development across species and determine how best to prevent and treat cancer in all patients.

The MU Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital's oncology section is conducting several joint research projects with MU's Ellis Fischel Cancer Center, the MU Health Sciences Center, the MU Research Reactor (MURR), and the Radiopharmaceutical Sciences Institute (RSI), as well as maintaining its own stand-alone research program.

The veterinary medical teaching hospital's oncology unit is also involved in several clinical trials extramurally funded through various foundations and industry groups. The MU hospital is one of only 12 sites chosen for participation in the National Cancer Institute's newly founded Comparative Oncology Trials Consortium. This Consortium operates under the umbrella of the NCI's Center for Cancer Research-Comparative Oncology Program to
initiate translational clinical trials in companion animals with cancer in hopes of answering questions essential to moving closer to cancer cures in companion animals, as well as people. The teaching hospital currently has research projects focusing on osteosarcoma, bladder cancer, lung cancer, melanoma, soft tissue sarcoma, lymphoma, and breast cancer.

In its clinical mission, the teaching hospital uses many of the same diagnostic and treatment tools that are available at human oncology specialty clinics including CT, MRI, nuclear medicine imaging equipment, a linear accelerator to deliver radiation therapy, and a full-service hospital for treatment and supportive care of chemotherapy and surgery patients. The hospital currently has four board-certified oncologists on staff, making it one of the largest veterinary oncology services associated with a veterinary college in the United States.

The hospital's oncology section offers specialized training through internship, residency, and graduate training programs, with one intern and three residents currently on staff; two residents are concurrently enrolled in PhD programs and one is completing a Master's degree program. The hospital also has a board-certified radiation oncologist on staff and a radiation oncology resident in training.

Much of the effort is financed through a donation by Tom and Betty Scott of Kansas City who earlier established the Scott Endowed Program in Veterinary Oncology.

Tom Scott attended MU on a football scholarship from 1954 to 1958, when he earned his BSBA degree. After graduating from MU, he began a career in insurance that lasted more than 40 years. He developed a group of companies that operated as the Insurance Management Corporation. During his career, Mr. Scott received national recognition in the areas of long-haul trucking and childcare insurance. Insurance Management Corporation merged with Arthur J. Gallagher & Company in 1995, and Mr. Scott retired in 1997.

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