Table 1.

Similarities and differences in naturally occurring invasive urothelial carcinoma between dogs and humans.

Similarities between dogs and humans

Physiological age of onset and clinical symptoms

Pathologically high grade, heterogenous cancer

Molecular subtypes (e.g., luminal, basal)

Epigenetic features

Shared molecular targets (e.g., EGFR, CDKN2B, PIK3CA, BRCA2, and NFkB)

Local cancer invasion into the bladder wall

Distant cancer metastases in ≥50% of subjects

Response to chemotherapy (e.g., cisplatin, carboplatin, and vinblastine)

Differences between dogs and humans

Sex differences (male : female ratio 2 : 1 in humans, 0.5 : 1 in dogs; although most dogs studied had been spayed or neutered)

Tumor location in bladder (more often trigonal in dogs; more variable in humans)

Dog tumors possess dog homologue of BRAF V600E mutation common in human melanoma (human InvUC has other variants in MAPK signaling)