For questions, please call 616-234-5569 or email
CHCC@vai.org
.
Osteosarcoma is a sarcoma that arises from osteogenic precursors. The incidence rate for osteosarcoma in all dogs is estimated to be 57/100,000 dogs/year, though in particular breeds of dogs, such as Rottweilers and Greyhounds, the incidence is higher (>10% incidence). However, among humans, osteosarcoma is rare in adults, with an incidence of 0.02/100,000 persons/year, though it is relatively more frequent in pediatric populations.
To investigate osteosarcoma, the Canine Hereditary Cancer Consortium (CHCC) will partner with members of the Pediatric Oncology Branch (POB) and Comparative Oncology 
at the National Cancer Institute (NCI), including Drs. Paul Meltzer , Chand Khanna , Javed Khan , and Melissa Paoloni. This team has already begun investigating the underlying causes of osteosarcoma.
Using gene expression profiling of high versus low metastatic osteosarcoma models to identify genes involved in metastasis, this group has observed that Ezrin is a key player that may impact prognosis in osteosarcoma. Shortly, the POB will open a protocol, the Bisgrove Pediatric study, to develop the first personalized treatment trial for children with pediatric cancers in collaboration with Dr. Von Hoff . A large component of this will be to treat patients with osteosarcoma. As part of the CHCC, we will perform a similar parallel study of osteosarcoma in dogs. We will determine if the same markers, mutations, gene expression profiles, and targets that are found in dogs are also found in human osteosarcoma and vice versa. The goals of this study are to identify the genetic lesions and to characterize the biochemical properties of osteogenic cells that contribute to the pathogenesis of osteosarcoma as well as to identify individualized treatments for osteosarcoma.
