NATURALLY-OCCURRING CANCER IN PET DOGS - IMPORTANT MODELS FOR DEVELOPING IMPROVED CANCER-THERAPY IN HUMANS

It has been said that 'dog is man's best friend'. Comparative oncologi sts are demonstrating that pet dogs could hold the keys for advances i n cancer treatment in people, Specific types of cancer that arise spon taneously in pet dogs could serve as important models of human cancer, having much greater similarity to their counterparts in humans than m any currently used experimentally Induced tumor models. In vivo models that are relevant to human cancer are greatly needed, particularly fo r evaluating new strategies for cancer therapy such as augmentation of the immune system or blockade of the metastatic cascade. In addition, pet dogs could also be used to identify environmental carcinogens by acting as sentinels of cancer Induced by these toxins.