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Posted: 19th September 2012

Orangutan undergoes chemotherapy
Image: J Pat Carter/AP
First for orangutan cancer treatment

An eight-year-old orangutan has undergone chemotherapy treatment at Miami Zoo Jungle Island, Florida.

The orangutan, named Peanut, has aggressive non-Hodgkin lymphoma (cancer of the blood). She was diagnosed following examinations for an intestinal obstruction and is the first documented orangutan to undergo chemotherapy.

Peanut has been undergoing chemotherapy since August. Three other orangutans, all in their 30s and 40s, have been known to undergo cancer treatment in the past, though they received either radiation therapy or operations to remove their tumours.

Orangutans share about 96 percent of a human's genetics, so her treatment is close to what a human would receive for the same type of cancer, however, she is given slightly reduced doses. Unless her body can't handle it, Peanut will receive six three-hour doses, each 21 days apart. Her doses are one or two hours less than given to humans.

I've never had the same combination of fear and enthusiasm in one patient before
Unlike humans, Peanut has been sedated for the treatments, though vomited after her first therapy. It is not known whether this was caused by the treatment or the anaesthesia - which is known to cause nausea in animals.

One of the doctors treating Peanut, Joseph Rosenblatt, said: "I've never had the same combination of fear and enthusiasm in one patient before. We don't know what to expect and yet we're intensely curious and potentially hopeful that we can help the animal."

Dr Rosenblatt has never worked with an animal larger than a mouse, but he adds: "When the animal looks at you in the eye, it's both sympathetic as well as a look that radiates intelligence."

Image: J Pat Carter/AP
Peanut is able to use sign language and uses an iPad to communicate with her trainers. The team say she is very welcoming - offering her doctor a twig in return for a water bottle. With age on her side, it is thought that Peanut stands a good chance of being cured following her therapy, or at least experiencing remission.

The team say they are keeping a positive attitude around her, though she is highly intelligent and she understands something is different with her. Her trainers believe she would not comprehend what cancer or illness is.

Peanut's trainer, Linda Jacobs, said Peanut is fatigued but hasn't lost much of her reddish-orange hair.

"I have been with her since she was born, so I am really sensitive to her needs and her moods," she said. "She still has that twinkle in her eye, and God willing, she will be a cancer survivor."



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