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. 2013 Jan 17:2013:941275.
doi: 10.1155/2013/941275. Print 2013.

Breed-predispositions to cancer in pedigree dogs

Jane M Dobson  1
Affiliations

Breed-predispositions to cancer in pedigree dogs

Jane M Dobson. ISRN Vet Sci. .

Abstract

Cancer is a common problem in dogs and although all breeds of dog and crossbred dogs may be affected, it is notable that some breeds of pedigree dogs appear to be at increased risk of certain types of cancer suggesting underlying genetic predisposition to cancer susceptibility. Although the aetiology of most cancers is likely to be multifactorial, the limited genetic diversity seen in purebred dogs facilitates genetic linkage or association studies on relatively small populations as compared to humans, and by using newly developed resources, genome-wide association studies in dog breeds are proving to be a powerful tool for unravelling complex disorders. This paper will review the literature on canine breed susceptibility to histiocytic sarcoma, osteosarcoma, haemangiosarcoma, mast cell tumours, lymphoma, melanoma, and mammary tumours including the recent advances in knowledge through molecular genetic, cytogenetic, and genome wide association studies.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Incidence of specific types of canine neoplasia. From [12] (Pink bars denote malignant tumours, blue benign lesions).
Figure 2
Figure 2
A simplified schematic summary of dog evolution: depicting the two evolutionary “bottle necks”: domestication and breed formation. It has been estimated that domestication of wild wolf-canine populations resulted in a 5% loss of nucleotide diversity, breed formation has caused a 35% loss [30].
Figure 3
Figure 3
Summary of the neighbour-joining tree of domestic dogs [26] showing relationships between different breeds of dog on the basis of DNA analyses. Breeds that share either common behaviours or morphologic traits are grouped together on the basis of DNA analysis, indicating that they probably share common ancestors. The colours indicate breeds that probably share common founders.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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