Predicting Risk of Hemangiosarcoma with Metabolome Biomarkers

Cancer is one of the most common causes of mortality in many dog breeds. Some of these cancers, like hemangiosarcoma, are particularly deadly. Once diagnosed, individuals often die within just a few weeks or months. Many diseases are diagnosed with biomarkers measured in body fluids. For example, glucose in urine is used as a biomarker to diagnose diabetes. Glucose is one of many thousands of metabolites in the body. These molecules make up the building blocks of life. Using just a drop of blood, we can measure hundreds of different metabolites at a time. We call this profile the metabolome. For many cancers, the metabolome differs between healthy individuals and those with cancer. Thus, we might be able to use the metabolome to diagnose cancer. But often, the earlier a cancer is found, the better the prognosis. If we could predict which individuals will contract cancer in future, we could watch them closely over time. This is like someone with a family history of skin cancer who sees a dermatologist every year. To discover these predictive biomarkers, we must compare blood samples for dogs that will get cancer, with those that remain cancer free. This requires that we track individuals over their lifetime. Fortunately, we can do this with the Golden Retriever Lifetime Study. We have large numbers of stored blood samples from healthy dogs. Among those healthy dogs, we know which ones will get hemangiosarcoma. For this study, we will compare the metabolome in dogs that remain cancer free with dogs that get hemangiosarcoma. Successful outcome of this work could help veterinarians predict which patients are at greatest risk. This could improve the ability to diagnosis cancer early, and so increase successful treatment.