Paoloni M, Davis S, Lana S, et al. Canine tumor cross-species genomics uncovers targets linked to osteosarcoma progression. BMC Genomics. 2009 Dec 23;10:625 [open access]

Researchers at the National Cancer Institute, Veterinary Teaching Hospital Colorado State University, Laboratory of Oncologic Research Bologna, and Childrens Hospital Los Angeles compared osteosarcoma expression profiles in dogs and children in an effort to identify novel metastasis-associated tumor targets that have been missed through the study of the human bone cancer alone.

From the paper background:

“An increasingly considered modeling approach in cancer biology and therapeutic development is the study of naturally occurring cancers in pet dogs (referred to as comparative oncology). The features of cancers in pet dogs that may uniquely contribute to our understanding of cancer pathogenesis, progression and therapy have been recently reviewed… Companion (pet) dogs develop osteosarcoma at similar sites as human patients, with identical histology, response to traditional treatment regimens such as surgery and chemotherapy, and proclivity for metastasis… Similarly, many of the candidate genes implicated in the pathogenesis or progression of osteosarcoma in children have also been characterized in the canine disease… The incidence of osteosarcoma in dogs is higher than children, with >10,000 dogs diagnosed yearly… Differences in disease prevalence and the more aggressive disease biology in the dog further argues the opportunity for this approach to inform our understanding of this highly aggressive pediatric cancer. Although limited in scope, pet dogs with osteosarcoma have been effectively integrated into the development of novel treatment approaches for human patients, most notably pioneering limb-sparing techniques… In 2005 the first public draft of the canine genome sequence was released… This milestone provided the opportunity for dogs with cancer to lend additional insight into the biology of human cancers, and to more rigorously evaluate and translate novel therapies to human trials.”

The authors found strong similarities in gene expression patterns between canine and human osteosarcoma, which they suggest supports the inclusion of pet dogs as a translational model in studies of osteosarcoma therapy. A boy’s best friend, indeed.

Kreeger PK, Lauffenburger DA. Cancer systems biology: a network modeling perspective. Carcinogenesis. 2010 Jan;31(1):2-8 [open access]

Two biomedical engineers at the University of Wisconsin and Massachusetts Institute of Technology review the literature to develop a critique of, and contribution to, pathway-centric oncogenesis research, toward a systems biology approach.

From the introduction:

“Pathways … cannot properly be considered to operate in isolation of one another, as an alteration of one pathway can lead directly (via protein–protein interactions) or indirectly (via transcriptional/translational influences) to changes in others. Accordingly, cancer—along with other complex diseases such as arthritis and diabetes—is most productively conceived of and strategized for treatment as a dysregulation of a multipathway network.”

Not the easiest paper, but well worth reading until you get it.