Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Collagen patterns linked to prognosis in dog mammary cancer
By Case, Ashley et al.·Published in PloS one·2017·Department of Clinical Sciences and Advanced Medicine, United States·View original on PubMed →
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Original publication title: Identification of prognostic collagen signatures and potential therapeutic stromal targets in canine mammary gland carcinoma.
- Species:
- dog
Plain-English summary
A dog with mammary gland cancer was studied to find better ways to predict how the disease might progress and to identify potential treatment targets. Researchers looked at the structure of collagen (a protein in tissues) in tumor samples, finding that certain collagen characteristics were linked to worse survival outcomes. Specifically, dogs with more disorganized collagen and no clear boundary between the tumor and surrounding tissue had a higher risk of the cancer spreading. These findings suggest that examining collagen patterns could help veterinarians determine which dogs might need more aggressive treatment.
People also search for: dog mammary cancer prognosis · canine mammary tumor treatment · dog collagen and cancer · signs of dog breast cancer
Abstract
Increasing evidence indicates that the tumor microenvironment plays a critical role in regulating the biologic behavior of breast cancer. In veterinary oncology, there is a need for improved prognostic markers to accurately identify dogs at risk for local and distant (metastatic) recurrence of mammary gland carcinoma and therefore would benefit from adjuvant therapy. Collagen density and fiber organization have been shown to regulate tumor progression in both mouse and human mammary tumors, with certain collagen signatures predicting poor outcomes in women with breast cancer. We hypothesized that collagen signatures in canine mammary tumor biopsies can serve as prognostic biomarkers and potential targets for treatment. We used second harmonic generation imaging to evaluate fibrillar collagen density, the presence of a tumor-stromal boundary, tumor associated collagen signatures (TACS) and individual collagen fiber characteristics (width, length and straightness) in grade I/II and grade III canine mammary tumors. Collagen density, as well as fiber width, length and straightness, were inversely correlated with patient overall survival time. Notably, grade III cases were less likely to have a tumor-stromal boundary and the lack of a boundary predicted poor outcome. Importantly, a lack of a defined tumor-stromal boundary and an increased collagen fiber width were associated with decreased survival even when tumor grade, patient stage, ovariohysterectomy status at the time of mammary tumor excision, and histologic evidence of lymphovascular invasion were considered in a multivariable model, indicating that these parameters could augment current methods to identify patients at high risk for local or metastatic progression/recurrence. Furthermore, these data, which identify for the first time, prognostic collagen biomarkers in naturally occurring mammary gland neoplasia in the dog, support the use of the dog as a translational model for tumor-stromal interactions in breast cancer.
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Search related cases →Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28683102/