OVC fights cancer in pets and people

Hope for a cure lies in continued support for research: establishing a solid partnership between leading cancer specialists and scientists, funding agencies and the general public, as well as pet owners and their veterinarians, to meet the research challenge and transform how we care for those affected by the disease.

It is from that hope that plans are taking shape at the Ontario Veterinary College (OVC) to create a Canadian first: the Institute for Comparative Cancer Investigation (ICCI). And OVC Pet Trust is taking the lead in helping bring those plans to life.

"The University of Guelph and OVC are on the cusp of a tremendous opportunity to take an integrated approach to cancer studies in ways that researchers, working solely in a human health environment, cannot," says Dr. Brenda Coomber, a cancer researcher in the Department of Biomedical Sciences.

Over the next several years, Pet Trust will raise $10 million for new facilities and to support translational cancer research that will benefit pets and people.

"The sad fact is, just as our ageing human population is more susceptible to cancer, many of our pets get cancer, too," says Dr. Paul Woods, Clinical Studies. "Dogs, in particular, share our environments and develop many of the same types of cancers."

Cancer treatments already account for a large proportion of the procedures carried out at OVC’s Small Animal Clinic. The Institute will build upon OVC’s existing expertise in clinical care and in basic cancer biology.

Creation of the Institute is a major priority in OVC’s strategic plan and reflects growing demand from the pet-owning population for the same standards of care and outcomes that we expect for human cancer patients.

Increasingly, veterinary medicine
is a proving ground for new cancer
therapies, allowing researchers to study
naturally occurring cancer in dogs and
cats, for example, and conduct clinical
trials that parallel human research.

For example, OVC scientists working
with researchers at McMaster
University have examined gene
therapy that targets dendritic cells to
trigger the dog’s own immune system
to attack cancer cells.

Another project, involving Dr. Tony
Mutsaers of Toronto’s Sunnybrook
Health Sciences Centre, looked at
the effectiveness of metronomic
chemotherapy – low, continuous
doses of chemotherapy drugs aimed
at cutting off the blood supply to
tumours.

"If, for instance with metronomic
chemotherapy, we can show that it's
working in cats and dogs who have
similar cancers and the same sort of
blood supply that would be in you or
I with cancer, then the research will
benefit people as well," says Woods.
The Animal Cancer Centre at OVC
may include up to six examination
rooms, two chemotherapy suites, a
procedure room, two quiet family
rooms, plus ward space for 12 to 20
pets. It will also feature a seminar
room, teaching area, small library, dog
run and outdoor enclosure to create a
welcoming environment for pets and
their people.

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