Dogs have long been treasured as companions and protectors. Now, thanks to a $75,000 gift from the RCA Community Fund of the Sacramento Region Community Foundation, dogs are helping their human friends find a cure for cancer. The knowledge will benefit canines and humans alike.

The $75,000 gift will fund the first year of a three-year clinical trials consortium that will combine the resources of the Cancer Center with those of the School of Veterinary Medicine, perhaps the first canine-human clinical trials collaboration ever undertaken. The School of Veterinary Medicine and the Cancer Center will jointly fund the last two years.

The consortium will concentrate on investigational treatments for cancers that occur more frequently in dogs than in people, including sarcomas and lymphomas. This approach will give canine cancer patients at the vet school access to more anti-cancer drugs than ordinarily would be available to them. At the same time, physicians at the Cancer Center will get valuable information about the efficacy of new treatments sooner than they otherwise would.

"It's truly a win-win proposition for both species," says Joseph Tuscano, an associate professor of hematology and oncology at the Cancer Center. He and Cheryl London, an assistant professor of surgery and radiological sciences in the veterinary school, will serve as principle investigators for the groundbreaking collaboration.

William Hegg, treated at the Cancer Center a decade ago for prostate cancer, was instrumental in securing the new gift. A member of the board of directors for the RCA Community Fund, Hegg convinced his fellow directors that an investment in the Cancer Center would have far-reaching benefits for Sacramento and the region.

"In my opinion, the Sacramento community is fortunate to have a leader in the cancer field like UC Davis Cancer Center," says Hegg, who is chairman of the board of Alleghany Properties, Inc.

The RCA Community Fund is a permanent endowment created when RCA Information Services, Inc., a national credit company, donated its office and other assets to the Sacramento Region Community Foundation.The Sacramento Region Community Foundation is a nonprofit community foundation dedicated to helping people connect to causes they care about. It has distributed more than $38 million since its inception in 1983.

In addition to Hegg, the foundation's board is made up of some of Sacramento's most distinguished business and community leaders, including Elizabeth Rindskopf Parker, dean of the University of the Pacific McGeorge School of Law; Jeanne Reaves, president and CEO of River City Bank; and Frank Whittaker, vice president of the McClatchy Company.

"The results of this novel consortium may motivate drug companies to investigate cancer drugs they might not otherwise invest in, medications that could benefit both human and canine patients," says Ralph deVere White, director of the Cancer Center. "We are grateful to the Sacramento Region Community Foundation for helping to make this research possible."