title: Oncology of companion animals as a model for humans. an overview of tumor histotypes.
abstract: The need for more appropriate animal models in cancer research has led, over the past 20 years, to consider pets with spontaneously occurring neoplasms as a valuable and still under used resource. The role of companion animals in the struggle to eradicate cancer can be multiple: they may act as environmental sentinels, help in gaining insights on tumor biology and finally may be enrolled in therapeutic trials which might act as a bridge to the clinic applications. This paper will focus on the most valuable spontaneous neoplasms in companion animals and will analyze the potentials of each histotype as a model for basic research and for new therapeutic strategies. It is conceivable that in the next years comparative oncology will play a paramount role in translational medicine allowing a rapid flow of data from laboratories to clinical application in humans.
authors.affiliation: Molecular Oncogenesis Laboratory, Regina Elena Cancer Institute, Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Porrello
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Cardelli
authors.forename: E P
authors.initials: EP
authors.lastname: Spugnini
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000829:Animals, Domestic; D002371:Cat Diseases / Q000473:pathology; D002415:Cats; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D004283:Dog Diseases / Q000473:pathology; D004285:Dogs; D006801:Humans; D008495:Medical Oncology / Q000379:methods*; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000145:classification* / Q000175:diagnosis*; D012107:Research Design