03000: Characterizing the Immunomodulatory Response of Histotripsy in Canine Osteosarcoma

One Health: Yes

Abstract

Osteosarcoma (OS) is a devastating and common cancer in dogs. Large and giant breed dogs are predisposed to OS with Scottish Deerhounds, Rottweilers, Irish Wolfhounds, and Greyhounds are associated with increased incidence of OS due to genetic factors contributing to increased risk inheritance in these breeds. Current standard-of-care treatment of canine OS involves resection of the primary tumor either via limb amputation or limb-salvage surgery, followed by adjuvant chemotherapy to delay metastatic disease. Limb salvage surgery is associated with high complication rates and not all dogs are appropriate candidates for limb amputation. Despite various permutations in chemotherapeutic regimens, the median survival for canine OS remains at 10-12 months and improved treatment options are needed. Histotripsy is a precision non-thermal focused ultrasound method that mechanically disintegrates tissues. Histotripsy can also potentially induce immune activation towards an anti-tumor immune response. These properties translate into a unique and exciting potential for histotripsy to be an effective non-surgical limb salvage treatment for the primary tumor, and serve as an immunotherapeutic capable of inducing an anti-OS immune response against metastatic disease to increase survival. Investigators will conduct an in-vitro study to further understand the effect of histotripsy on immune cells and on metastatic development in canine OS. This study will complement and broaden the canine patient immune evaluation the research team has previously performed, and advance the progress to develop histotripsy as an immunotherapeutic in OS. Harnessing the immunomodulatory potential of histotripsy could overcome metastatic disease and offer a major breakthrough in survival expectations for OS in dogs.

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