Largest-ever canine genomics research reveals human-canine oncology connection

One Health Company has unveiled newly published research from the largest ever clinico-genomics study in dogs with findings that can potentially help advance precision oncology drug development for both dogs and humans.¹

"There is a remarkable similarity between human and canine tumor biology, specifically, genomics. And because tumors progress more quickly in dogs, this creates a paradigm for preclinical research that can accelerate the development of precision cancer therapeutics for both canines and humans, without compromising safety," Christina Lopes, PhD, MS, co-founder and CEO of the One Health Company, explained in a company release.²

"This much-needed research can ultimately improve clinical trial success, closing the vast oncology unmet needs—on both sides of the leash," she added.

Conducted in partnership with Shaying Zhao, PhD, professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at the University of Georgia, the study analyzed canine cancer in over 700 dogs from 96 breeds compared to over 24,000 human cancer samples.¹

Current drug development is reliant on mouse models for preclinical efficacy, which yields an 89% failure rate for novel cancer therapeutics in human clinical trial studies.³ Furthermore, only 3 to 6% of human cancer patients participate in clinical trials, thus increasing drug discovery and research costs for new therapeutics already costing $2.6 billion to get FDA-approved and taking approximately 10 years to be available on the market.

According to the release, using the One Health Company's FidoCureNext Generation Sequencing Genomic Panel, the study compared regions of the DNA that are more susceptible to cancer-causing mutations.² Twenty mutational hotspots were detected in the canine genome, and 13 of these orthologous hotspot mutations found are also often displayed in human cancers.

"This study validates findings from prior smaller sample canine genomics research and emphasizes important parallels between the human and canine tumor genomes to identify clinically actionable mutations, which in turn provides a powerful platform informing and advancing precision oncology drug development across the board," commented Zhao.²

References

1. Rodrigues L, Watson J, Feng Y, et al. Shared hotspot mutations in spontaneously arising cancers position dog as an unparalleled comparative model for precision therapeutics. Annu Rev Cancer Biol. 2021. doi: 10.1101/2021.10.22.465469
2. Largest-ever canine genomics study establishes link between human and canine oncology. News release. One Health Company. January 26, 2022. Accessed January 27, 2022. https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/largest-ever-canine-genomics-study-establishes-link-between-human-and-canine-oncology-301468587.html
3. Rybinski B, Hosgood DH, Wiener S L, Weiser DA. Preclinical metrics correlate with drug activity in phase II trials of targeted therapies for non-small cell lung cancer. Front Oncol. 2020;(5)10. doi: 10.3389/fonc.2020.587377