Bridging the human-animal divide
By Terri Smith, a Minneapolis-based writer
Humans and dogs have been linked in a mutually beneficial relationship since the Stone Age, when man and dog first joined in the hunt. Dogs share our homes, food, and affection. As it turns out, they also share much of our genetic code and suffer from many of the same kinds of cancer.
That’s why the clinicians and scientists of the Animal Cancer Care and Research program are joining with dogs in another type of hunt—the search for a cure for cancer in both dogs and humans.
“Veterinarians have known for years that humans and their dogs have many types of cancer in common—non-Hodgkin lymphoma, prostate, lung, breast, and bone cancer, and melanoma, to name a few,” Jaime Modiano explains. “Yet, it wasn’t until the dog genome was decoded in 2005 that scientists could begin to reap the rewards of studying cancer in both dogs and humans to their mutual benefit, bolstering the emerging field of comparative oncology.”
Modiano directs the College of Veterinary Medicine’s Animal Cancer Care and Research (ACCR) program and holds the Alvin S. and June Perlman Endowed Chair in Animal Oncology. He also is a member of the Masonic Cancer Center’s Genetic Mechanisms of Cancer and Immunology research programs.
Breakthrough research arising from a highly productive and long-standing collaboration between Modiano and Matthew Breen, professor of genomics at North Carolina State University College of Veterinary Medicine (published in the February 2008 issue of the journal Chromosome Research) proved that cancers in the two species aren’t just similar; they are virtually the same. Such research in comparative oncology bridges the College of Veterinary Medicine and the University’s Masonic Cancer Center. The research will help advance the understanding of the biology of cancer and create new therapies to treat cancer in both humans and dogs. When the feline genome is decoded, cats will aid in the effort, too.
Bringing dogs into the cancer research mix offers huge benefits, chief among them speed. Dogs live into old age, but their life spans are compressed, which allows researchers to see the progress of cancer and the effects of different types of treatments 7 to 10 times faster than in humans. That allows rapid completion of clinical trials.
One example is the case of Batman, a 10-year-old mixed breed dog suffering from an incurable brain tumor. In a federally funded study conducted as part of a collaboration between Liz Pluhar, associate professor of surgery in the College of Veterinary Medicine, and John Ohlfest, assistant professor of pediatrics at the School of Medicine, Batman’s tumor was removed surgically, which eliminated the seizures that plagued him. In the second phase of treatment, he received injections of a vaccine made from his brain tumor cells in the hope that they will direct his body’s immune system to attack and destroy any residual tumor cells.
“This process illustrates the synergy we can achieve when veterinarians, physicians, and scientists with complementary expertise join forces to tackle these shared types of cancer,” says Modiano. “Batman is doing very well so far. If he’s alive a year from now, we really might be onto something.”
As dogs like Batman aid in the fight against cancer for all of us, the dog is again proving to be man’s best friend.
With a long-standing history as leaders in pediatric cancer research, University of Minnesota investigators continue to make major discoveries impacting the future of children and adults with life-threatening illnesses. Support from Children's Cancer Research Fund empowers these scientists to aggressively meet milestones on the way toward the development of innovative research and treatments that can potentially prevent and cure childhood cancer, as well as improve the quality of life of a rapidly growing number of cancer survivors. Children's Cancer Research Fund played a crucial role in funding research surrounding the Brain Tumor Vaccine.