AURIC (Auburn University) researchers are pursuing genetic approaches to better understand both the causes of cancer, and ways to treat it using a one-health approach. By working with dogs, which have many of the same cancers as humans, we learn about treating both humans and dogs. In breast cancer, researchers have identified multiple mutations in the dog that mirror mutations in women.
These mutations give us an understanding of the pathway that a cell takes when it becomes cancerous. Researchers at Auburn are also using genetics to create new therapies for cancer. In the case of osteosarcoma, they have harnessed a canine virus, engineering it to attack bone cancer cells, in an attempt to treat dogs with this disease.
US & Canadian Academy of Pathology (USCAP)