Upon a competitive selection process and the recommendation of the ACF Scientific Advisory Council, ACF has awarded a 2019 Comparative Oncology Grant Award to Dr. Cordula Gabriel, University of Veterinary Medicine, and Dr. Sabine Taschner-Mandl, St. Anna Children’s Hospital, Children’s Cancer Research Institute, both of Vienna, Austria, to collaborate to investigate a new therapeutic strategy for bone cancer (osteosarcoma).  The team is using an anti-rheumatic agent combined with proteasome inhibitors to reinforce the beneficial impact.  The team will use three-dimensional dog and human microtumor models in vitro to mimic the effects of the novel drug combination in both pets and people.

A recent study published in the journal Nature, conducted by ACF Scientific Advisory Council member Dr. Cheryl London, The Anne Engen and Dusty Professor of Comparative Oncology, Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University and Tufts Medical Center and Dr. Jeffrey Trent, president and research director of Translational Genomics (TGEN), demonstrated that bone cancer is genetically similar in people and in dogs, opening this new avenue of research for more effective treatments.*

ACF looks forward to the results of Dr. Gabriel’s and Dr. Taschner-Mandl’s research.

(*Dr. Gabriel and Dr. Taschner-Mandl did not participate in the Tufts – TGEN study)