Increase animal welfare and quality of life in dogs with tumors as we search for the silver bullet for cancer

Cancer is the single most common cause of death in dogs. It also affects the quality of life/animal welfare of many dogs.

Thus, there are reasons to find better diagnostics and new treatments leading to earlier detection, increased understanding of why cancer occurs and treatments better adapted to dogs and their tumors.Cancer cells have a reduced repair capacity; accumulate oxidized nucleotides in DNA causing cell death if not eliminated.

One protein particularly important in reducing oxidative stress in cancer is MTH1. MTH1 is not necessary for normal cells and therefore an ideal therapy candidate. An MTH1 inhibitor (karotunib) has been developed. It has shown efficacy in vitro, in preclinical models and phase 1 studies in human cancer.

Studies have been performed in healthy dogs, where the corresponding dose not causing side effects still showed an in vitro effect on canine cancer cells.

Hence, we want to start clinical studies on dogs currently treated with the human-registered cytotoxic drug doxorubicin.

The dogs are followed up identically as they do today with cytotoxic injections, but instead given karotunib orally at home by their owners. The hypothesis is stress reduction, better quality of life and continued good tumor effect. We will also perform various forms of in vitro studies on residual material from routine tumor surgery.

The goal is discovery of specific biomarkers to predict tumor response to karotunib in dogs and create individualized cancer treatment.