Louise van der Weyden is a dog person. But as a scientist who studies cancer in animals, she has turned her attention to cats in recent years.
Insight into feline cancers has been like “a black box,” van der Weyden said, because scientists have known so little about them.
But what she recently found after years of research surprised her: Cat cancers are similar to some human cancers, giving her hope for future advancement in treatments.
“It’s a unique opportunity to help two species in one go,” van der Weyden said.
The finding came from a study in which van der Weyden and other scientists across the world investigated cancer-causing genes in tumor samples of nearly 500 domestic cats — specifically which genes were commonly mutated.
The most striking similarity was in a gene called FBXW7, a critical tumor suppressor for people and cats. In cats, the gene was frequently altered in mammary tumors. Mutations in the gene are also associated with worse outcomes for people who have breast cancer.
Researchers say they are hopeful that their study, published in the journal Science, can help develop cancer treatments for cats. They also said that by further studying cat cancers, scientists could possibly better understand human cancer and, eventually, develop potential treatments for people.
“There’s a real dual benefit there, kind of a win-win for cats and for humans,” said Geoffrey Wood, a veterinary pathologist and co-author of the study.
In hindsight, researchers said, finding similar genetic mutations in cat and human cancers makes sense.
Research has found that cats share a large amount of their genetic code with humans, more so than many other mammals like dogs, cows and mice. Because of those similarities, cats can make reliable models of human diseases.
Pet cats often share the same home as their owners, meaning they can be exposed to similar carcinogens in their water and air. That’s one reason dogs have already been crucial in helping scientists better understand human cancers.
Cancer progresses faster in dogs than in people, meaning researchers can receive quicker results with potential treatments in clinical trials with canines. The bone cancer osteosarcoma is more common in dogs than people, so scientists have learned techniques from the animals on how to treat people with the same cancer, and vice versa.
A decade ago, researchers told The Washington Post that dogs were observed more than cats in oncology studies because less was known about feline tumors and cats tended to become more stressed interacting with people.
For their study, van der Weyden and other researchers collected tissue samples from domestic cats from Austria, Canada, England, Germany, New Zealand and Scotland.
They screened about 1,000 cat genes that are equivalent to human genes associated with cancer. Van der Weyden said she worried they might not find similarities between cat and human cancers, partly because few cat genetic studies had been completed.
However, in addition to the gene associated with breast cancer in both species, researchers said they found similarities in human and cat cancers affecting their blood, bones, lungs, skin, gastrointestinal tract and central nervous system.
“I was first of all doing it for the cat,” said van der Weyden, senior staff scientist at the Wellcome Sanger Institute, a genomics research center in Cambridgeshire, England. “But then to find that there are similarities and we can help humans, that’s fantastic.”
Researchers found that the chemotherapy drug vincristine was effective against cats’ mammary tumors, according to the study, which was published in February. They said that finding could guide veterinary pharmaceutical companies in developing treatment for mammary cancer, which is the third-most-common feline cancer and is typically deadly, according to Cornell University‘s Feline Health Center.
“Before we just didn’t know; we didn’t know what drug you could potentially pick,” said Wood, who teaches pathology at the University of Guelph in Ontario. “And now there’s sort of a list, at least, that could then proceed to clinical trials.”
Jaime Modiano, a professor at the University of Minnesota’s school of veterinary medicine who was not involved in the research, said the study is a foundation for scientists to learn more about cat and human cancers. However, he said, much more research is required to determine whether the findings can lead to treatments for cats — let alone helping with human cancers.
“It’s the first step,” Modiano said, “in the journey of a thousand miles.”
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