AKC Canine Health Foundation Grant #768

Research Objective:

A Collaborative Study by Veterinary Oncologists, Pathologists and Diagnostic Laboratories to Enhance the Detection, Diagnosis and Treatment of Canine Lymphoma

Principal Investigator:

Dr. Ted Valli
University of Illinois

Abstract:

Lymphoma is the most common canine cancer treated by chemotherapy and a most common neoplasm that afflicts dogs of all breeds and ages. The completion of the canine genome has shown the remarkable similarities to that of humans. Similarly, many of the malignancies that occur in dogs are also like their human counterparts especially for the tumors of the lymphoid system. The World Health Organization has devised a new system of recognizing and categorizing the many subtypes of lymphoid tumors with very different characteristics that must be considered in providing effective treatments. Currently lymphomas in dogs are treated as if they are all of the same type, but we now find that like those in humans the canine lymphomas are of many types that also benefit from specific identification and treatment. The goal of this study is to demonstrate that veterinary diagnosticians can effectively apply the human criteria to the canine tumors and thus permit much more effective treatment by veterinary oncologists. This application will alter costs of treatment according to tumor type and increase survival in animal companions that share our lives and environments.