A Note about Oncogenetics

Why animal testing is used in medical research

One reason that I have some small insight into what is likely going on in Jazz Jennings’ hypothalamus is that I was a research assistant to a person who was doing experiments on the brains of inbred lab mice, and in the process, I learned quite a bit. One thing I helped with was physically marking out the hypothalamus with a marker on slides of mouse brain cross section, in an attempt to quantify differences in size and shape which could then be correlated with data on the rat’s learning behavior as well as the known inbred rat genetics. By today’s standards, this was a crude technology, but 20 years ago, this was cutting edge. I am no expert in neurogenetics and neuropharmacology, like he is (PhD+postdoc), despite my expertise in other aspects of brain and behavior. But I know a few things.

Lab rats are not like wild rats. They’re not like your pet rats. And the reason is that they are extremely inbred, with genetics that have been tracked for decades of mouse generations, which are much shorter than human generations due to their short lifespans. These rats are further genotyped and excluded if they have novel mutations that may independently contribute to or promote the formation of things like tumors in response to drugs (oncogenes). As a consequence of this inbreeding, these rats are very, very stupid. But the point is that we know that if an inbred lab rat is injected with a dose of a drug and starts developing tumors, it is minimally likely to have been coincidental or due to a family history of cancer genes (oncogenes). Coincidence can never be fully ruled out, due to the reality of cosmic rays bombarding our genetics 24/7. But you can minimize the likelihood.

When you inject rats with testosterone and they develop epithelial dysplasia and mammary tumors, therefore, we can say with the highest degree of scientific certainty that the testosterone induced the tumors in these lab rats. Unless we want to have a population of inbred humans used for medical experimentation, there is no ethical way to repeat such an experiment on human children. That isn’t stopping them, obviously. I am sure a lot of these doctors wish we had inbred lab humans.

Doctors generally understand this reality, as it is core to drug research, which they study in graduate school, as I did. So that is why the unethical ones feel comfortable gaslighting patients about the lack of carcinogenesis of these drugs - easily verifiable on Pubmed - knowing that, when cancer forms, they can attribute it to the child’s unknown genetic history. Genetic history they likely do not even test prior to initiation of treatment, to determine whether the child possesses any known oncogenes. They can then blame the tumor on coincidence or an oncogene that no one could have predicted. They believe they can weasel their way out of any and all malpractice suits. And so they must be stopped.

Testosterone induces tumors. Testosterone causes cancer. Testosterone kills. Testosterone is a hormonal cigarette. And they are selling this to children without warning them of the possibility. They are selling it as a life-saver instead of a life-shortener. It keeps me up at night.