Senior Scientist and Director NIH/NCI/CCR Comparative Oncology Program Bethesda, Maryland, United States
Background Key gaps in knowledge persist as to the true translatability of canine osteosarcoma (OS) to its human counterpart, inclusive of histologic, genomic and transcriptomic features. Under the NCI’s Decoding the Osteosarcoma Genome of the Dog (DOG2) project, we are addressing these gaps through a comparative OS pathology board, comprised of both physician and veterinary pathologists.
Hypothesis/Objectives Specific objectives are: 1) Compare/contrast canine and human OS histopathologic features; 2) Establish updated diagnostic criteria for canine OS, with insight from physician sarcoma pathologists; and 3) Incorporate molecular characterization to further validate dogs as a suitable model for translational drug development and biomarker studies.
Animals Treatment-naive primary OS tumor samples were subjected to veterinary pathologist QA/QC prior to inclusion. A sample/data archive was created using LabMatrix to organize and track samples, images, and accompanying clinical and genomic/transcriptomic datasets.
Methods Monthly focused discussions are underway on specific comparative aspects of canine vs. human OS. Specific histologic features and patterns are discussed and compared by board members. A revised classification and grading scheme is being developed to harmonize the approach between species.
Results Initial observations of n = 200 canine OS primary tumors find similar incidence of hallmark cell types and histologic patterns in both species (osteoblastic and chondroblastic differentiation, vessel-rich and necrotic regions, giant cell-rich regions, immune cell infiltration and presence of lymphoid aggregates).
.jpg "Amy K. LeBlanc, DVM, DACVIM(O) photo")
