Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Herbicide exposure and lymphoma risk in Golden Retrievers
By Tindle, Ashleigh N et al.·Published in Veterinary and comparative oncology·2025·Department of Medical Sciences, United States·View original on PubMed →
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Original publication title: Genotoxic Herbicide Exposures in Golden Retrievers With and Without Multicentric Lymphoma.
- Species:
- dog
Plain-English summary
A group of Golden Retrievers with multicentric lymphoma (CML), a common type of cancer in dogs, was studied to see if exposure to certain herbicides (2,4-D and glyphosate) was linked to the disease. Researchers measured the levels of these herbicides in the dogs' urine at the time of diagnosis and a year before. They found that both affected and unaffected dogs had similar levels of these chemicals, and while both herbicides were shown to be harmful to dog blood cells in lab tests, the connection to CML was not clear. Overall, the study did not find strong evidence that these herbicides caused cancer in the dogs.
People also search for: Golden Retriever lymphoma causes · herbicides and dog cancer · 2 · 4-D glyphosate exposure in dogs
Abstract
Canine multicentric lymphoma (CML) is one of the most common malignancies in dogs. Although breed risk is important, environmental factors such as herbicides have also been implicated. The objective of this study was to determine whether genotoxic exposures to the herbicides 2,4-D and glyphosate are associated with CML, using dogs from the Golden Retriever Lifetime Study cohort. We measured urinary concentrations of glyphosate and 2,4-D in golden retrievers with CML and matched unaffected controls at two time points: at the time of diagnosis and 1 year prior to diagnosis. To assess the genotoxic potential of herbicide exposures, we used reverse dosimetry from urinary concentrations to estimate plasma concentrations. We then assessed the genotoxicity of these herbicide concentrations towards healthy canine peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC's) in vitro using the CometChip assay, with and without canine liver microsomes. All dogs had detectable urinary exposures to 2,4-D (7.3-42.9 ng/mg creat) and glyphosate (0.4-80.7 ng/mg creat), with no differences between cases and controls at either time point. Both 2,4-D and glyphosate were genotoxic to canine PBMCs at concentrations of 0.10 μM and higher, with no consistent effects of canine liver microsomes on herbicide genotoxicity. No dogs reached estimated genotoxic plasma concentrations for glyphosate, but 4 of 30 golden retrievers with CML (13.3%) and 2 of 30 control dogs (6.7%) reached estimated genotoxic 2,4-D exposures (p = 0.67).
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Search related cases →Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40114542/