An Associated Press article surprised cat and other pet owners. A series of highly accredited research studies, conducted over the past decade, show that the same microchips used to track pets are the cause of fast-growing malignant cancers in 1% to 10% of laboratory animals tested. Now animal owners are faced with what to do.

Why do microchips cause cancer?

As Dr. Katherine Albrecht, a consumer educator and privacy advocate who helped research and publish this story, explains, what scientists believe is happening is similar to a common splinter. When you get a splinter in your finger, your body does everything it can to get rid of it. The site turns red, swells, and attempts to dislodge the foreign object.

However, when a microchip is embedded deep into the fatty tissue of your cat or other pet, her body is unable to push the chip out like a splinter. Instead, a swelling forms around the microchip. Scientists believe that these inflamed cells can become malignant and then metastasize and move through the body. The worst part is that these tumors can grow rapidly and become malignant.

What the research shows

Between 1996 and 2006, eight published veterinary and toxicology journals reported that laboratory mice and rats injected with microchips sometimes had a tendency to develop subcutaneous “sarcomas,” or malignancies around the implants. A brief summary of some of the main conclusions is presented below.

• A 1998 study in Ridgefield, Connecticut of 177 mice reported that the incidence of cancer was slightly greater than 10 percent. The researchers described the results as “surprising.”
• A 2006 study in France detected tumors in 4.1 percent of 1,260 microchipped mice. This was one of six studies in which scientists did not set out to find microchip-induced cancer, but instead noted the results incidentally.
• In 1997, a study in Germany found cancers in 1 percent of 4,279 chipped mice. The tumors “are clearly due to the implanted microchips,” the authors wrote.

What the researchers say

Investigating the story, the Associated Press asked scientists to weigh in on the available research. Specialists from some prominent cancer institutions said the findings raised red flags.

–“Having read this information, there is no way in the world that one of these chips would be implanted in my skin or in one of my family members,” said Dr. Robert Benezra, director of the Genetics Program of Cancer Biology. at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York.

–Dr. George Demetri, director of the Center for Sarcoma and Bone Oncology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, agreed. Although the tumor incidents were “reasonably small,” in his opinion, the research highlighted “certainly real risks” in RFID implants. In humans, sarcomas, which attack connective tissue, can range from highly curable to “tumors that are incredibly aggressive and can kill people in three to six months,” he said.

–At the Jackson Laboratory in Maine, a leader in mouse genetics research and cancer initiation, forensic pathologist Dr. Oded Foreman also reviewed the studies at the request of the AP. He was initially skeptical, suggesting that chemicals administered to some of the studies could have caused the cancers and skewed the results. But he took a different view after seeing that control mice, given no chemicals, also developed cancer. “That could be a little hint that something real is going on here,” he said.

–“The transponders were the cause of the tumors,” said Keith Johnson, a retired toxicology pathologist, explaining in a telephone interview the findings of a 1996 study he led at the Dow Chemical Company in Midland, Michigan.

What can cat owners do?

1. Regularly check your cat or other microchipped pet for swelling or lumps., especially around the injection site. If owners or vets find anything abnormal in that area or any other area (as chips can migrate), an x-ray or biopsy should be done.
2. Dr. Albrecht also suggests that pet owners help her Volunteer to educate and connect with animal advocacy and animal rights groups, as well as veterinary organizations. taking action on your website. Many of these animal-loving groups endorsed the use of microchips for pets without having access to previous studies. Dr. Albrecht hopes public pressure will also force Verichip Corporation, the chip maker, to take responsibility or face a class action lawsuit.
3. Report any incidence of pets that have died of cancer. or animals that have been cured of cancer by Dr. Albrecht on AntiChips, especially if the tumor is known or suspected to be or was linked to a microchip. This will help further document proof of cancer and stop the microchip.

Source: AntiChips.com; washingtonpost.com