News & Publications

News

Several advances in the field of cancer have been made through a comparative oncology approach. Recent national attention has highlighted the comparative oncology field:​​

• An experimental cancer treatment cured this dog. Could it work for people? May 2018
• Morris Animal Foundation awards $775,000 to test osteosarcoma immunotherapy vaccine in dogsHow dogs are helping us understand cancer. April 2017
• How dogs are helping us understand cancer. March 2018
• Jackson Lab Turns To Dogs In Brain Cancer Research. November 2017. 
• Answer to Cancer May Be the Family Dog. July 2017. 
• CSU comparative oncology documentary set for national release. March 2017. 
• On The Horizon: How dogs may help fight bone cancer. March 2017
• AKC Canine Health Foundation Awards First Research Grant Through the Comparative Brain Tumor Consortium. February 2017. 
• Man's best friend offers a guide to cancer treatment. February 2017. 
• New tricks in canine cancer research may improve treatments for humans, too. November 2016. 
• Sick Dogs Could Be Key to Unlocking Mysteries of Immunotherapy. November 2016. 
• Pets battling cancer help lead doctors to cures, treatments for people. September 2016. 
• Pets battling cancer help lead doctors to cures, treatments for people. September 2016.
• Loose the Hounds. August 2016.
• Can clinical trials on dogs and cats help people?. August 2016.
• Researchers Turn to Canine Clinical Trials to Advance Cancer Therapies. April 2016.
• Helping Dogs with Bone Cancer Aim of Clinical Trial with U.S. Cancer Institute. April 2016.
• Learning from Dogs with Cancer. New York Times. October 2015.
• Which Dogs are More Prone to Cancer? And Other Questions. Newsweek. October 2015.
• Could Fido Fetch A Cure? Chemical & Engineering News. August 2015
• Cancer in Dogs Offers Insights for Humans Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News. July 2015
• Beagles help hunt for genes associated with canine, human bladder cancer. Medical Press. April 2015
• Shedding Light on Health: Research Helps People and Pets NIH News in Health. May 2014
• Giving Humans the Pet Treatment May 2014
• Man's Best Friend in More Ways Than One. 2011.
• Cancer Clues from Pet Dogs. Scientific American. December 2006
• In Trials for New Cancer Drugs, Family Pets are Benefiting, Too. New York Times. November 2006
• Cancer Strides for Dogs Assist Human Therapy. Wall Street Journal. July 2005.

Publications

Publications from the Comparative Oncology Program:

• Consensus recommendations on standardized magnetic resonance imaging protocols for multicenter canine brain tumor clinical trials. May 2018. (CBTC Publication)
• Creation of an NCI comparative brain tumor consortium: informing the translation of new knowledge from canine to human brain tumor patients. May 2016.
• Perspectives from man's best friend: National Academy of Medicine's Workshop on Comparative Oncology. February 2016.
• A Comparative Oncology Study of Iniparib Defines Its Pharmacokinetic Profile and Biological Activity in a Naturally-Occurring Canine Cancer Model PLOS One, February 2016. (COTC Publication)
• Defining the Value of a Comparative Approach to Cancer Drug Development. December 2015.
• Defining the Pharmacodynamic Profile and Therapeutic Index of NHS-IL12 Immunocytokine in Dogs with Malignant Melanoma PLOS One, June 2015. (COTC Publication)
• Prospective molecular profiling of canine cancers provides a clinically relevant comparative model for evaluating personalized medicine (PMed) trials PLOS ONE, March 2014. (COTC Publication)
• A Compendium of Canine Normal Tissue Gene Expression PLoS One, May 2011.
• Rapamycin Pharmacokinetic and Pharmacodynamic Realtionships in Osteosarcoma: A Comparative Oncology Study in Dogs. PLoS One, June 2010. (COTC Publication)
• The Creation of the Comparative Oncology Trials Consortium Pharmacodynamic Core: Infrastructure for a virtual laboratory. Veterinary Journal, July 2010.
• The Comparative Oncology Trials Consortium: Using Spontaneously Occurring Cancers in Dogs to Inform the Cancer Drug Development Pathway. PLoS Medicine, October 13, 2009.
• Guiding the Optimal Translation of New Cancer Treatments from Canine to Human Cancer Patients. Clinical Cancer Research 15:5671-7, September 15, 2009.
• Launching a Novel Preclinical Infrastructure: Comparative Oncology Trials Consortium Directed Therapeutic Targeting of TNFalpha to Cancer Vasculature. PLoS One, March 30,2009. (COTC Publication)
• Canine tumor cross-species genomics uncovers targets linked to osteosarcoma progression. BMC Genomics, December 2009
• Translation Of New Cancer Treatments From Pet Dogs To Humans. Nature Reviews Cancer. February 2008.

Comparative oncologists study naturally occurring pet cancer to:

• Understand environmental risks for human cancer.

  Companion animals may represent sentinels for environmental risk factors for cancer. Furthermore, these models may be helpful for the study of agents that may prevent cancers.

  • Hargis AM, Thomassen RW. Animal model: solar dermatosis (keratosis) and solar dermatosis with squamous cell carcinoma. Am J Pathol. 1979 Jan; 94(1):193-6.
  • Reif JS, Dunn K, Ogilvie GK, et al. Passive smoking and canine lung cancer risk. Am J Epidemiol. 1992 Feb 1; 135(3): 234-9.
  • Glickman LT, Schofer FS, McKee LJ, et al. Epidemiologic study of insecticide exposures, obesity, and risk of bladder cancer in household dogs. J Toxicol Environ Health. 1989; 28(4): 407-14.
  • Hayes HM, Tarone RE, Cantor KP. Case-control study of canine malignant lymphoma: positive association with dog owner’s use of 2, 4 dichlorophenoxyacetic acid herbicides. J Natl Cancer Inst. 1991 Sep 4; 83(17): 1226-31.
  • Waters DJ, Hayden DW, Bell FW, et al. Prostatic intraepithelial neoplasia in dogs with spontaneous prostate cancer. Prostate. 1997 Feb 1; 30(2): 92-7.
  • Bukowski JA, Wartenberg D, Goldschmidt M. Environmental causes for sinonasal cancers in pet dogs and their usefulness as sentinels of indoor cancer risk. J Toxicol Environ Health A. 1998 Aug 7; 54(7): 579-91.
• Examine genetic/familial determinants for cancer predispositions.

  The study of cancer genetics can be simplified by studies of cancer risk in breeds of dogs and within families of dogs. Cancer genes identified in dogs have been shown to be relevant in human familial cancers. This work will be enhanced with the progress of the canine genome project.

  • Onions DL. A prospective survey of familial canine lymphosarcoma. J Natl Cancer Inst. 1984 Apr; 72(4): 909-12.
  • Szabo CI, Wagner LA, Francisco LV, et al. Human, canine and murine BRCA1 genes: sequence comparison among species. Hum Mol Genet. 1996 Sep; 5(9): 1289-98.
  • Schafer KA, Kelly G, Schrader R, et al. A canine model of familial mammary gland neoplasia. Vet Pathol. 1998 May; 35(3): 168-77.
  • Jonasdottir TJ, Mellersh CS, Moe L, et al. Genetic mapping of a naturally occurring hereditary renal cancer syndrome in dogs. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2000 Apr 11; 97(8): 4132-7.
  • Ostrander EA, Comstock KE. The domestic dog genome. Curr Biol. 2004 Feb 3; 14(3): R98-9.
  • Lindblad-Toh K. Genome sequence, comparative analysis and haplotype structure of the domestic dog. Nature. 2005 Dec; 438(8): 803-819.
• Improve our understanding of cancer biology and to add biological relevance to genomics data in experimental model systems.

  The availability of tumor samples from large populations of dogs contributes to their value to the study of cancer biology. The availability of molecular techniques and information from the canine genome project will enhance opportunities to study cancer biology that is informative for human disease in companion animals.

  • London CA, Galli SJ, Yuuki, et al. Spontaneous canine mast cell tumors express tandem duplications in the proto-oncogene c-kit. Exp Hematol. 1999 Apr; 27(4): 689-97.
  • Prescott DM, Charles HC, Poulson JM, et al. The relationship between intracellular and extracellular pH in spontaneous canine tumors. Clin Cancer Res. 2000 Jun; 6(6): 2501-5.
  • Thomas R, Fiegler H, Ostrander EA, et al. A canine cancer-gene microarray for CGH analysis of tumors. Cytogenet Genome Res. 2003; 102(1-4): 254-60.
  • Catchpole B, Gould SM, Kellett-Gregory LM, et al. Development of a multiple-marker polymerase chain reaction assay for detection of metastatic melanoma in lymph node aspirates of dogs. Am J Vet Res. 2003 May; 64(5): 544-9.
  • Khanna C, Wan X, Bose S, et al. The membrane-cytoskeleton linker ezrin is necessary for osteosarcoma metastasis. Nat Med. 2004 Feb; 10(2): 182-6.
• Evaluate novel therapeutic strategies.

  In addition to techniques such as chemotherapy, surgery, and radiation, approaches such as anti-angiogenesis, immunotoxins, and general immunotherapy are now being used to fight cancer. These novel treatments were tested first in animals.

  • Kurzman ID, MacEwen EG, Rosenthal RC, et al. Adjuvant therapy for osteosarcoma in dogs: results of randomized clinical trials using combined liposome-encapsulated muramyl tripeptide and cisplatin. Clin Cancer Res. 1995 Dec; 1(12): 1595-601.
  • Thrall DE, Prescott DM, Samulski TV, et al. Radiation plus local hyperthermia versus radiation plus the combination of local and whole-body hyperthermia in canine sarcomas. Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys. 1996 Mar 15; 34(5): 1087-96.
  • Andrawiss M, Opolon P, Benihoud K, et al. Adenovirus-mediated gene transfer in dog prostate: a preclinical study of a relevant model system for gene therapy of human prostatic cancer. Prostate Cancer Prostatic Dis. 1999 Jan; 2(1): 25-35.
  • Knapp DW, Glickman NW, Widmer WR, et al. Cisplatin versus cisplatin combined with piroxicam in a canine model of human invasive urinary bladder cancer. Cancer Chemother Pharmacol. 2000; 46(3): 221-6.
  • Walsh P, Gonzalez R, Dow S, et al. A phase I study using direct combination DNA injections for the immunotherapy of metastatic melanoma. University of Colorado Cancer Center Clinical Trial. Human Gene Ther. 2000 Jun 10; 11(9): 1355-68.
  • Khanna C, Prehn J, Hayden D, et al. A randomized controlled trial of octreotide pamoate long-acting release and carboplatin versus carboplatin alone in dogs with naturally occurring osteosarcoma: evaluation of insulin-like growth factor suppression and chemotherapy. Clin Cancer Res. 2002 Jul; 8(7): 2406-12.
  • Pryer NK, Lee LB, Zadovaskaya R, et al. Proof of target for SU11654: inhibition of KIT phosphorylation in canine mast cell tumors. Clin Cancer Res. 2003 Nov 15; 9(15): 5729-34.
  • Khanna C, Vail DM. Targeting the lung: preclinical and comparative evaluation of anticancer aerosols in dogs with naturally occurring cancers. Curr Cancer Drug Targets. 2003 Aug; 3(4): 265-73.
  • Bergman PJ, McKnight J, Novosad A, et al. Long-term survival of dogs with advanced malignant melanoma after DNA vaccination with xenogeneic human tyrosinase: a phase I trial. Clin Cancer Res. 2003 Apr; 9(4): 1284-90.
  • Hansen K, Khanna C. Spontaneous and genetically engineered animal models: use in preclinical cancer drug development. Eur J Cancer. 2004 Apr; 40(6): 858-80.