Canine sarcomas as a surrogate for the human disease

Abstract

Pet dogs are becoming increasingly recognized as a population with the potential to inform medical research through their treatment for a variety of maladies by veterinary health professionals. This is the basis of the One Health initiative, supporting the idea of collaboration between human and animal health researchers and clinicians to study spontaneous disease processes and treatment in animals to inform human health. Cancer is a major health burden in pet dogs, accounting for approximately 30% of deaths across breeds. As such, pet dogs with cancer are becoming increasingly recognized as a resource for studying the pharmacology and therapeutic potential of anticancer drugs and therapies under development. This was recently highlighted by a National Academy of Medicine Workshop on Comparative Oncology that took place in mid-2015 (http://www.nap.edu/21830). One component of cancer burden in dogs is their significantly higher incidence of sarcomas as compared to humans. This increased incidence led to canine osteosarcoma being an important component in the development of surgical approaches for osteosarcoma in children. Included in this review of sarcomas in dogs is a description of the incidence, pathology, molecular characteristics and previous translational therapeutic studies associated with these tumors. An understanding of the patho-physiological and molecular characteristics of these naturally occurring canine sarcomas holds great promise for effective incorporation into drug development schemas, for evaluation of target modulation or other pharmacodynamic measures associated with therapeutic response. These data could serve to supplement other preclinical data and bolster clinical investigations in tumor types for which there is a paucity of human patients for clinical trials.

Onchological Review to Pet Medicine

“…), combined them in the therapy may increase the success of ttreatment and usefull for detecting of efficacy and toxicity of them [7]. The most important is the basis of the One Health initiative, supporting the idea of collaboration between human and animal health researchers and clinicians to study spontaneous disease processes and treatment in animals to inform human health [5].…”

“…Approximately 1 in 4 dogs will, at some stage in their life, develop neoplasia. Almost half of dogs over the age of 10 will develop cancer [3][4][5].…”

Emerging therapeutic approaches for canine sarcomas: Pushing the boundaries beyond the conventional

“…Despite their relatively low occurrence, sarcomas remain a significant clinical challenge with high mortality rates, particularly among adolescents . In dogs, soft tissue and bone sarcomas occur with high frequency in comparison to people . Absolute and relative incidence of sarcomas in dogs is unknown, as formal registries do not exist to accurately capture this data.…”

“…Absolute and relative incidence of sarcomas in dogs is unknown, as formal registries do not exist to accurately capture this data. Previous literature has suggested that soft tissue sarcomas account for 9% to 15% of all cutaneous and subcutaneous tumours with between 27 000 to greater than 95 000 dogs diagnosed with a soft tissue sarcoma each year in the United States; this is likely an underestimate and based on owners who seek a diagnosis. When considering vascular tumours, angiosarcoma in humans is a subset of soft tissue sarcomas that accounts for approximately 1% to 2% of all soft tissue sarcomas (~300 patients each year) and carries an overall poor prognosis with a high metastatic rate .…”

“…When considering vascular tumours, angiosarcoma in humans is a subset of soft tissue sarcomas that accounts for approximately 1% to 2% of all soft tissue sarcomas (~300 patients each year) and carries an overall poor prognosis with a high metastatic rate . With a similar, aggressive biologic behaviour to angiosarcoma, the incidence of canine hemangiosarcoma is estimated to be 25 to 100 times greater; but as with soft tissue sarcomas, the true incidence is unknown. Although human angiosarcoma and canine hemangiosarcoma are often viewed as homologous tumours, it is important to recognize that in humans, angiosarcoma includes tumours that arise from vascular endothelial cells (hemangiosarcoma) or lymphatic endothelial cells (lymphangiosarcoma) .…”