Research funding awarded by the Department of Veteran's Affairs (VA) will enable a study of a potential treatment for melanoma to be studied in companion dogs with the disease. Because canine melanoma is biologically similar to human melanoma, researchers hope the study will help inform future approaches to human treatments.

Melanoma is a serious health issue for military veterans, who often have occupational risk of high exposure to harmful UV radiation from sunlight.

The funding ($650,000 over 4 years) was awarded to Mark Albertini, MD, associate professor, Hematology, Medical Oncology and Palliative Care.

Dr. Albertini's team will work with colleagues at the UW School of Veterinary Medicine's teaching hospital to identify pet dogs who spontaneously develop melanoma. With dog owners' permission, the study will investigate whether a type of immunotherapy called checkpoint blockade that is designed to train the immune system to attack and kill cancer cells can be improved for melanoma treatment by injecting tumor cells with an immunocytokine that targets a melanoma marker, followed by localized radiation therapy.

The research team hopes that this procedure will coax the body's immune system to recognize and attack the melanoma cells by inducing a T cell response specific to melanoma, and that this response can be further amplified with an immune checkpoint blockade regimen.

"The results from this canine trial could enable rapid translation into clinical testing of these concepts in human patients, including Veterans, with advanced melanoma. This approach is clinically advantageous as it involves agents and treatments that are currently available or in clinical testing, and it could be readily made available as an 'off the shelf' therapy in Veterans Hospitals throughout the USA," wrote Dr. Albertini.

Photo caption: In this file photo from 2016, a therapy dog with Dogs On Call visits with internal medicine and pharmacy residents to provide companionship during their busy clinical training schedules. Photo credit: Clint Thayer/Department of Medicine