Feline Injection Site Sarcoma (FISS) is an uncommon, but aggressive skin tumor that can develop at the location of a vaccination in cats. Currently, the most effective treatment is radical surgery followed by radiotherapy.
Researchers at the Carson College of Veterinary Medicine recently published a study in BioMed Central that may help develop other treatments for FISS.
A team of researchers that included Drs. Stephen Ramsey and Christiane Löhr, demonstrated that FISS is, at the molecular level, highly similar to soft-tissue tumors in dogs and humans, and therefore may respond well to treatments used for those diseases. The team also identified eleven drugs as potential new therapies, and validated in the laboratory that one drug (GSK-105615) does inhibit growth of FISS-derived cancer cells.
This was the first ever study of the transcriptome (all the messenger RNA molecules in a specific gene) of FISS, and the first cross-species comparison of FISS with other cancers.
“This work brought together contributions of tissue from OSU, Colorado State University and the Children’s Cancer Therapy Development Institute; bioinformatics expertise from OSU; and cancer expertise from all three institutions,” says Ramsey.
