Comparative oncology: what dogs and other species can teach us about humans with cancer

Abstract

One contribution of 18 to a theme issue 'Cancer across life: Peto's paradox and the promise of comparative oncology'. Over 1.66 million humans (approx. 500/100 000 population rate) and over 4.2 million dogs (approx. 5300/100 000 population rate) are diagnosed with cancer annually in the USA. The interdisciplinary field of comparative oncology offers a unique and strong opportunity to learn more about universal cancer risk and development through epidemiology, genetic and genomic investigations. Working across species, researchers from human and veterinary medicine can combine scientific findings to understand more quickly the origins of cancer and translate these findings to novel therapies to benefit both human and animals. This review begins with the genetic origins of canines and their advantage in cancer research. We next focus on recent findings in comparative oncology related to inherited, or genetic, risk for tumour development. We then detail the somatic, or genomic, changes within tumours and the similarities between species. The shared cancers between humans and dogs that we discuss include sarcoma (osteosarcoma, soft tissue sarcoma, histiocytic sarcoma, hemangiosarcoma), haematological malignancies (lymphoma, leukaemia), bladder cancer, intracranial neoplasms (meningioma, glioma) and melanoma. Tumour risk in other animal species is also briefly discussed. As the field of genomics advances, we predict that comparative oncology will continue to benefit both humans and the animals that live among us.

The animal-dependent risk factors in canine osteosarcomas

“…It was shown that besides numerous similarities in tumor biological behavior, parallel genetic features of human and canine osteosarcoma cells also exist (Mueller et al 2007, Rowell et al 2011. So, Rottweilers can be an excellent oncologic animal model for researches on human OSA (Fenger et al 2014, Schiffman andBreen 2015).…”

Perspectives from man’s best friend: National Academy of Medicine’s Workshop on Comparative Oncology

“…Strong similarities in cancer biology between dogs and humans include patterns of response or resistance to conventional therapy, as well as metastasis and recurrence (4). At the histological level, numerous specific cancers are functionally identical in dogs 1 and humans (osteosarcoma, mucosal melanoma, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, bladder cancer, and others) (4-7).…”

Human Bone Xenografts: from Preclinical Testing for Regenerative Medicine to Modeling of Diseases

“…Canine studies are, however, largely prohibitive in terms of costs and scale, severely limiting their routine application in research studies. Moreover, significant differences remain between canine and human osteosarcomas [120].…”