Connection Between Cancer in People and Cancer in Pets is a Critical Tool in Cancer Control for all Species

Tuesday, November 2, 2010 • Dr. Rodney Page • Director, Flint Animal Cancer Center

Fort Collins - In 2007, Colorado's Comprehensive Cancer Center (UCCC) and the Flint Animal Cancer Center at Colorado State University (FACC) entered into a National Institutes of Health-sanctioned consortium agreement. Of course, we've been working together without the agreement for more than 20 years. These formal linkages between our institutions are unmatched in the world of comparative cancer research and care.

FACC is a comparative cancer center - we focus, both in clinical care and basic research, on the control of cancer for the benefit of companion animals as well as humans. Our mission is to improve the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of cancer in pet animals and translate discovery and innovations to benefit people and pets with cancer.

UCCC is one of only three consortium comprehensive cancer centers in the United States, and the only one with a formal agreement between a program that focuses on care and research in companion animals and a human cancer research program. In coming together, we've created a unique collaboration that includes:

• About 20 collaborative research projects among faculty at CSU and UC Denver in 2009. Emphasis-areas include tumor immunology/immunotherapy, integrated clinical trials with novel therapeutics, shared biomarker development and surgical advances.
• UCCC's Pharmacology Core, which is located at CSU and managed by CSU faculty.
• Routine videoconferencing for clinical and research education.
• Shared graduate training for veterinarians or physicians pursuing a Ph.D. in cancer research.

World's Largest Comparative Cancer Center

The field of comparative oncology was formalized by pioneers in the field of veterinary oncology at CSU, who led an NCI-sponsored program project grant devoted to comparative oncology for 15 years. As a result of our work, and many others across the country, the National Cancer Institute now devotes resources to support a comparative oncology program that includes a national multi-center clinical trial network in companion animals to accelerate the discovery of new therapies for pets and people.

Today, the FACC is the largest and most prestigious comparative cancer center in the world. Each year, 1,500 new patients - dogs and cats - come to our cancer center from across the region and the country for specialized care because of our compassion, expertise and technology. Our center's physical footprint of 35,000 square feet includes the James L. Voss Teaching Hospital and research facilities on the main CSU campus. We have for companion animals what hospitals have for human patients:

• Fully equipped surgical facilities
• A critical care unit
• A full complement of imaging technologies including MR, PET-CT and nuclear imaging devices

All are dedicated to both patient care and research. We also have 22 clinical and basic cancer science faculty at CSU, and about 90 people work in the cancer center organization. Our faculty train graduate students, post-doctoral fellows, residents, clinical fellows and veterinary students in basic cancer research and clinical cancer care.

One of the ways that we fulfill our mission is through the safe conduct of clinical trials in pets with cancer as a means to enhance animal and human health. Such clinical research has been a strength of FACC for 25 years.

Why collaborate with human cancer researchers?

The relevance of spontaneously arising cancer in companion animals to human cancer is well recognized. Companion animals share our environment and, unfortunately, are subject to the same environmental contaminants or carcinogens that we are and develop cancer at a similar rate.

Remarkable similarities also exist in the molecular basis of cancer initiation and progression, pathologic characteristics of cancer and the development of metastases and resistance to therapy. Our formal collaboration with UCCC makes perfect sense because of this: What we learn in companion animals can translate to humans and vice versa.

In addition to the many therapeutic and diagnostic innovations to come, there are new opportunities to develop collaborative projects in cancer prevention and detection.

• Faculty at CSU and CU have already started to develop clinical studies in both humans and dogs with new dietary interventions that are expected to favorably change intestinal microflora in patients with colon cancer.
• We maintain a biorepository of specimens from animals with cancer that will be useful for biomarker development for early detection and prognosis. There are currently about 15,000 specimens in this archive.
• We will also embark on a lifetime health study in dogs to characterize many of the potential genetic, environmental and lifestyle risk factors for cancer and other major diseases in dogs. This study is similar to the Framingham Study, Nurses' Health Study and the Health Professionals Follow-up Study which have so greatly improved health recommendations for people. This project will be funded through the Morris Animal Foundation, headquartered in Denver, and will undoubtedly generate many interesting hypotheses to enhance the health of pets and people!

We are extremely proud of the CU-CSU partnership and believe that understanding the connection between cancer in people and cancer in pets is a critical tool in cancer control for all species.