Does patient size matter for osteosarcoma?

Osteosarcoma (OS) is a malignant bone tumor that is most common in children and young adults. It is also known to be common in larger breed dogs and share similarities with human OS clinical presentation and tumor genomics. It is also more common in taller humans and dogs. This may be due to the association with osteoblasts and the fact that this cancer develops during periods of rapid growth. Most of the time, this cancer develops in individuals sporadically, but in 25% of patients with OS the reason remains unclear but may be related to gene variants.

A group of researchers from universities across the United States realized that there are too few incidences of osteosarcoma in humans to be able to gather enough data on OS’s etiology. This sparked the idea of using comparative oncology using canines.

Past studies focused on multiple large breed dogs (Irish Wolfhounds, greyhounds, and Rottweilers) but failed to find any overlap of OS risk between breeds. Consequently, these researchers chose to focus on Irish Wolfhounds and concentrated their efforts looking at OS risk allele detection. This is because growth rate and height are consistently seen as common risk factors in humans, leading them to focus on these attributes in Irish Wolfhounds.

By examining OS in children and adolescents alongside large breed dogs, researchers have been able to narrow down their findings to even more specific regions. In previous studies for example, they found that Chromosome 18 in Irish Wolfhounds is frequently implicated in OS risk, but now with an extended haplotype, they can identity eight specific genes on that chromosome.

Expanding research efforts to include both humans and canines allows for possible 'discovery of biological pathways affecting both normal and malignant bone growth.’ This multi-ethnic cohort of OS patients exceeded sample sizes of all previous OS risk studies and was able to identify potential OS risk alleles. The information discovered throughout this study will allow cancer epidemiologists to continue to make life-saving breakthroughs.

Christina Nault is a 2025 PharmD candidate at the University of Connecticut

Reference

Lucas SE, Yang T, Wimberly CE, et al. Genetic variation near GRB10 associated with bone growth and osteosarcoma risk in canine and human populations. Cancer Epidemiol. Published online June 12, 2024. doi:10.1016/j.canep.2024.102599