Using NewsHour Extra Feature Stories

Overview: NewsHour Extra features stories can help students identify and interpret key issues in current events. This activity anticipates one class period, but the follow-up essay might be assigned as homework, or in another period.

Warm Up: Use initiating questions to introduce the topic and find out how much your students know.

Main Activity: Have students read NewsHour Extra's feature story and answer the questions on the reading comprehension handout.

Discussion: Use discussion questions to encourage students to think about how the issues outlined in the story affect their lives and express and debate different opinions.

Follow-up: Students can write an 500-word editorial on the topic expressing their views and send it to NewsHour Extra [extra@newshour.org] for possible publication.

Evaluation: Students are graded on their answers to reading comprehension questions and/or their editorial.

Watch a video on this topic: Dogs Shed New Light on Cancer Genes in Humans, 03/15/07
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/science/jan-june07/cancer_03-15.html

Video Worksheet:
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/extra/teachers/lessonplans/science/worksheets/dog_3-15-07.html

Story: Dogs May Lead Doctors to Discover Why People Get Cancer, 04/04/07
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/extra/features/jan-june07/cancer_4-04.html

Initiating Questions:

1. What is cancer?

2. How are dogs and people similar and different?

Reading Comprehension Questions: (click here for printout)

1. Why are thoroughbred dogs useful in the study of cancer?

Doctors and medical researchers are focusing on these thoroughbreds because it is very easy to trace their genetic history, making it easier to isolate cancer-causing genetic mutations.

"In order to be a registered member of [the American Kennel Club], both of those dog's parents had to have been registered members, and their parents, and their parents. So the genetic pool for a particular breed is very, very small," Dana Mosher, a researcher at the National Human Genome Research Institute, told the NewsHour in a March 15 report.

"So what you're hoping is that most of their DNA looks similar and that it's easier to find that area where they look different and that is associated with the disease of interest."

2. How can the study of cancer in dogs help people who have cancer?

Once they've isolated the genes that cause cancer in dogs, scientists hope to create targeted therapies to treat the cancers in dogs and eventually in humans.

3. What is another advantage of studying cancer in dogs?

Another reason dogs are so appealing to cancer researchers as research subjects is that dogs are exposed to the same elements as people on a daily basis.

"They're in our environment. They share our household; they share the air they breathe; they share the water we drink," Dr. Susan Lana, veterinary oncologist at Colorado State University, told the NewsHour.

4. How is cancer research in dogs different than cancer research in other animals, such as mice?

The research has also not drawn the same fire as other test animals because, unlike those other animals, the tumor arises in the dogs naturally and spontaneously.

"In mice and other rodent test models, the cancer is given to the patient and then the [tumors] grow, and it is not necessarily a natural model," said Lana.

5. Compare a cancer vaccine for dogs to one for humans.

Researchers at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center are currently testing an innovative cancer vaccine that has proved to be highly successful in dogs.

The vaccine works to tell the immune system that any cancer cells are bad for the body and should be eliminated.

It is too soon to determine how the vaccine will work in large numbers of people, but doctors remain hopeful that man's best friend may lead to a live saving treatment for cancer patients everywhere.

Discussion Activity (more research might be needed):

1. The research mentions working with thoroughbred, or purebred dogs. Why can't non-thoroughbred dogs be used in this research?

2. Create a chart that includes animals used in medical research: mice, rabbits, dogs, monkeys, humans. In your chart, list advantages ("How are these animals like humans?") and disadvantages ("How are these animals unlike humans?") and the diseases that are commonly studied using the animals.

3. Find an article published in a peer-reviewed journal (such as Science, Nature, or the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences) on cancer research that uses an animal "model." Then, write a short report on the article that:
a) describes the type of cancer the research group is trying to cure, treat or prevent,
b) lists the animal species involved in the study, and
c) explains how this research could affect human health and when the treatment might be available to the general population.

Write a 300-500 word essay on any of these topics providing clear examples. Send your completed editorial to NewsHour Extra (extra@newshour.org). Exceptional essays might be published on our Web site.