Predicting Immunotherapy Response in Dogs with Bladder Cancer

THE PROBLEM: Cancer treatments have made significant progress over the last decade, especially immunotherapies that have revolutionized cancer treatment for people and animals. Unlike methods such as chemotherapy or radiation, these new treatments can activate the body's immune system to fight tumors with often few side effects. However, only 10% to 30% of dog patients with specific tumors show positive results post-treatment. Immunotherapies also can be costly for pet owners with no way to gauge results for their pets. 

THE PROJECT: Researchers are working on tests to predict a dog patient's response before starting immunotherapy treatments, using special 3D, lab-grown tumor cell cultures called organoids and combining these tumor cells with immune cells from the same dogs. The team aims to use this co-culture approach to evaluate how specific immunotherapy drugs elicit responses or non-responses in individual dogs. In this study, the team will focus on dogs with bladder cancer, collaborating with colleagues conducting clinical trials for this devastating disease in dogs.

POTENTIAL IMPACT: If successful, researchers hope their findings will inform the development of a test for dogs with cancers and possibly people. A test to gauge response to immunotherapy drugs before the start of treatment will help personalize care strategies for individual patients, hopefully improving outcomes.