Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
How chemokine genes affect spread and survival in female dogs
By Ariyarathna, Harsha et al.·Published in Veterinary immunology and immunopathology·2020·School of Veterinary Science·View original on PubMed →
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Original publication title: Chemokine gene expression influences metastasis and survival time of female dogs with mammary carcinoma.
- Species:
- dog
Plain-English summary
A study looked at 41 female dogs with malignant mammary tumors to see how certain proteins called chemokines affected their cancer's spread and survival time. It found that higher levels of two specific chemokines, CCL5 and CXCL12, were linked to tumors that spread to other parts of the body and shorter survival times. Additionally, tumors that expressed certain receptors were also associated with a worse prognosis. These findings suggest that measuring these chemokines and receptors could help predict outcomes for dogs with mammary cancer and might lead to new treatment options.
People also search for: dog mammary cancer prognosis · CCL5 and CXCL12 in dogs · female dog tumor treatment options
Abstract
Chemokines are signaling proteins secreted by immune cells which regulate leukocyte trafficking. The aberrant expression of chemokines and their receptors by neoplastic cells influences the behaviour of many human cancers. This study evaluated gene-expression of the chemokines: CCL5, CXCL10, CXCL12 and the chemokine receptors: CXCR3, CXCR4, CXCR7, CCR4, CCR9 in 41 histologically-malignant, outcome-known, canine mammary tumours. These chemokines and chemokine receptors were selected as all were previously shown to influence the behaviour of human breast cancers. The expression of chemokines CCL5 and CXCL12 were significantly higher in tumours which subsequently metastasised than tumours that did not metastasise (p < 0.05). Increased expression of these chemokines was also correlated with shorter survival times of the dogs (CCL5: r= -0.40, p = 0.02, CXCL12: r= -0.40, p = 0.03) while CCL5 was independently prognostic of survival times (p = 0.026). A significantly higher proportion of tumours that subsequently metastasised expressed CXCR3 (p = 0.037), CXCR4 (p = 0.026), CXCR7 (p = 0.025) and CCR9 (p = 0.039) receptors while the survival times of the dogs with tumours that expressed CXCR4 (p = 0.045) and CCR9 (p = 0.039) receptors were significantly shorter than dogs with tumours that did not express these receptors. Chemokine and chemokine receptor gene-expression has not been previously correlated with disease outcome of canine mammary tumours. These findings indicate that altered expression of chemokines and their receptors influences the behaviour of canine mammary tumours suggesting a potential role of them as prognostic markers or therapeutic targets.
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Search related cases →Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32590239/