Molecular targets for anticancer therapies in companion animals and humans: what can we learn from each other?

Research output: Contribution to journalReview articlepeer-review

Abstract

Despite clinical successes in the treatment of some early stage cancers, it is undeniable that novel and innovative approaches are needed to aid in the fight against cancer. Targeted therapies offer the desirable feature of tumor specificity while sparing healthy tissues, thereby minimizing side effects. However, the success rate of translation of these therapies from the preclinical setting to the clinic is dramatically low, highlighting an important point of necessary improvement in the drug development process in the oncology field. The practice of a comparative oncology approach can address some of the current issues, by introducing companion animals with spontaneous tumors in the linear drug development programs. In this way, animals from the veterinary clinic get access to novel/innovative therapies, otherwise inaccessible, while generating robust data to aid therapy refinement and increase translational success. In this review, we present an overview of targetable membrane proteins expressed in the most well-characterized canine and feline solid cancers, greatly resembling the counterpart human malignancies. We identified particular areas in which a closer collaboration between the human and veterinary clinic would benefit both human and veterinary patients. Considerations and challenges to implement comparative oncology in the development of anticancer targeted therapies are also discussed.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)3882-3897
Number of pages16
JournalTheranostics
Volume11
Issue number8
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 6 Feb 2021

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 The author(s).

Keywords

  • Companion animals
  • Comparative oncology
  • Molecular targets
  • Targeted therapy

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