Abstract 2509: Similar variant histology and immune cell infiltration in canine and human muscle-invasive bladder cancer
Authors: Allenspach Karin , Cheville John , Wickham Hannah , Zdyrski Christopher , Gabriel Vojtech , Ahmed Basant , Ciou Mei-Jyun , Lucien Fabrice , Frank Igor , Fasina Olufemi , Pineyro Pablo , Mochel Johnathan P. 
Published: April 2023

Introduction: Muscle-Invasive Bladder Cancer (MIBC) is associated with a poor overall survival rate. One important factor that contributes to poor treatment outcomes is the histologic heterogeneity of MIBC tumors, which limits the translational value of some rodent models. As opposed to mice, dogs with spontaneously occurring bladder cancer have been shown to present with similar clinical behavior as human MIBC. In addition, canines have an intact immune system, which could provide for an ideal pre-clinical study population to investigate the efficacy of immunotherapy. In this study, we evaluated canine MIBC tumor biopsies for their similarities to human MIBC with regards to histology and immune cell infiltration.

Materials & Methods: Nine canine MIBC tumor samples were provided by the ISU pathology service and evaluated by a human uropathologist. Canine MIBC tumors were phenotypically characterized using either immunofluorescence (IF) or RNA in situ hybridization (RNA-ISH), including CD44, KRT7 and FOXA1, as well as specific markers characterizing the immune cell infiltrate, such as CD163 (tumor-associated macrophages), CD8a (cytotoxic T-lymphocytes), PD-L1 (immune-checkpoint protein) and TGFβ2 (cancer-associated fibroblasts).

Results: Histologically, all canine MIBCs were classified as invasive, high-grade urothelial carcinomas (UC) with identical morphology to human MIBC. Interestingly, previously described histological variants of human MIBC tumors were also observed within the canine MIBC samples, such as glandular differentiation in 3/9 canine MIBC samples; epithelial-mesenchymal transition with sarcomatoid differentiation 1/9, squamous differentiation in 2/9 and micropapillary carcinoma in 1/9, all of which have been associated with poor clinical outcomes in human patients. IF was strongly positive for KRT7, FOXA1 and CD44, and immune cell markers CD163 and TGFβ2. However, CD8a was only weakly expressed (5/9) or negative, and PD-L1 was only positive in 4/9 canine MIBC biopsies.

Conclusions: Canine MIBC tumors showed significant heterogeneity with highly similar histological variant morphologies to those reported in humans with MIBC. Furthermore, phenotypic characterization of immune cell infiltrates and checkpoint proteins suggest that the tumors were typically immunologically “cold”. These data further establish the utility of the spontaneous canine model of MIBC for pre-clinical investigation of novel therapeutic drug candidates, including immunotherapies.

Citation Format: Karin Allenspach, John Cheville, Hannah Wickham, Christopher Zdyrski, Vojtech Gabriel, Basant Ahmed, Mei-Jyun Ciou, Fabrice Lucien, Igor Frank, Olufemi Fasina, Pablo Pineyro, Johnathan P. Mochel. Similar variant histology and immune cell infiltration in canine and human muscle-invasive bladder cancer [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2023; Part 1 (Regular and Invited Abstracts); 2023 Apr 14-19; Orlando, FL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2023;83(7_Suppl):Abstract nr 2509.