CSU Flint Animal Cancer Center

In 2002, the Flint Animal Cancer Center opened its doors. Dr. Stephen Withrow, a veterinary surgeon, and Dr. Ed Gillette, a radiation biologist and veterinarian from Colorado State University, laid the seeds of veterinary cancer therapy in the late 1970s. Veterinarians at the time were aware that animals may develop cancer. Because there were no modern diagnoses or therapies available, practitioners were forced to make a notation in the patient's medical record and wait for the outcome, which was usually always fatal. Drs. Withrow and Gillette believed that cancer could be treated in animals in the same way that it could be treated in people. They thought that spontaneously occurring malignancies in dogs, in particular, were similar to many cancers in humans, making dogs a useful model for studying the disease.