A team of researchers has uncovered a significant connection between a gene mutation and immune system signaling in canine hemangiosarcoma, a serious type of cancer that affects dogs. This finding could pave the way for improved treatments for both dogs and humans facing similar types of cancer.
Researchers at the University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine and the UF Health Cancer Center have uncovered a significant connection between a gene mutation and immune system signaling in canine hemangiosarcoma. This finding holds promise for enhancing treatments for both dogs and humans suffering from similar cancers.
The study centers on hemangiosarcoma, a fast-growing cancer that develops malignant blood vessels in dogs. This dangerous disease is challenging to detect early, as tumors can remain hidden until they burst, causing emergencies. Sadly, the outlook is grim; only 10% of dogs diagnosed with this cancer survive beyond one year, with none living longer than two years.
Hemangiosarcoma can impact any dog breed at any age, but older golden retrievers are particularly at risk. The high prevalence of this cancer in dogs—estimated at over 50,000 new cases each year in veterinary clinics—provides researchers with vital data that may also assist human patients with angiosarcoma, a rare cancer that affects around 1,000 Americans annually.
“The best four-legged friends of humans help us conduct high-quality cancer research,” stated Jon Kim, D.V.M., Ph.D., an assistant professor at the college and the lead investigator of the study. “We gain valuable insights into human cancer biology by investigating cancer in dogs.”
The research team’s results, shared last year in two groundbreaking publications, most notably in Cancer Gene Therapy, highlight a crucial finding regarding the growth and spread of this cancer. They discovered that hemangiosarcoma does not solely generate its own blood vessels; it also manipulates healthy neighboring cells to assist in constructing the blood vessels that nourish the tumor.
Even more importantly, the researchers found that a specific mutation in the PIK3CA gene prompts cancer cells to emit signals that mislead the body’s immune system.
While scientists have been aware of PIK3CA mutations in human cancers for many years, the full implications of these mutations on cancer growth and treatment responses have not been completely understood. According to Kim, the findings from this study help bridge these knowledge gaps.
“This new research provides us with crucial insights that could lead to innovative therapies for both dogs suffering from hemangiosarcoma with this mutation and human patients battling angiosarcoma,” he explained.
The rarity of angiosarcoma in humans has posed challenges for research, making it tough to gather sufficient data for meaningful clinical trials and to unravel the cancer’s basic biology. Nevertheless, the significantly higher occurrence of hemangiosarcoma in dogs offers researchers a robust natural model for their studies, as per the research team.
“We encounter numerous dogs with hemangiosarcoma in veterinary clinics,” Kim remarked. “We hope our research will be advantageous not just for distressed dogs but also for human patients dealing with this dreadful disease.”
In laboratory trials, the research group uncovered that hemangiosarcoma cells possess a distinctive capability to stimulate the production of blood cells. This mechanism could contribute to the formation of ‘cancer-friendly’ immune cells, thus confusing the body’s immune defense and promoting cancer growth. The team’s latest work demonstrates that this process may be driven by the mutant PIK3CA gene, highlighting new therapeutic avenues to target this mutation and its immune-disrupting effects.
“Our aspiration is that this pioneering approach will enhance our understanding of the clinical and translational importance of our findings in dogs for rare human cancers,” noted Kim.
