# Using Canine Organoids to Advance Therapeutic Drug Development in Bladder Cancer

> **NIH NIH R21** · UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA · 2023 · $137,650

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT
Muscle-Invasive Bladder Cancer (MIBC) is associated with an extremely poor survival rate of only 40% at 5
years follow-up, which, importantly, has not improved over the last 10 years. Two important factors that contribute
to poor treatment outcomes are (1) the shortage of truly innovative and effective drug candidates for MIBC, and
(2) the phenotypic and molecular heterogeneity of MIBC tumors, which limits the translational value of some
rodent models to evaluate therapeutic drug efficacy. Although murine models have been extensively used for
the study of bladder cancer, they typically do not faithfully reflect the biological behavior of MIBC in human
patients. As opposed to mice, dogs with spontaneously occurring bladder cancer have been shown to be a highly
relevant model for human MIBC. This is highlighted by the fact that canine MIBC presents with very similar
molecular features, tumor heterogeneity and subtypes, as well as clinical and metastatic behavior as humans.
Therefore, canine MIBC constitutes an ideal preclinical study population to evaluate novel therapeutic options
for patients with bladder cancer.
Although clinical trials in dogs with MIBC can be performed in significantly shorter time-frames than in people,
so far, only very few large-scale trials using the canine model have been performed. Validation of predictive ex
vivo assays to evaluate the potential efficacy of novel treatment modalities before formal testing in canine clinical
trials will therefore enhance translational efforts for the development of novel therapeutics. A promising
technology for the ex vivo screening of candidate drug efficacy lies in the culture of patient-derived tumor
organoids (PDOs). Compared with 2D cell lines, 3D PDOs better reflect the underlying biology of the tumor and
are therefore considered more robust ex vivo models to accurately predict clinical response to treatment
compared with molecular testing alone. We therefore propose that future therapeutic leads for MIBC be screened
ex vivo using canine organoids to select the most promising drug candidates. Subsequently, these novel
therapeutics could be tested in vivo in dogs with bladder cancer prior to clinical testing in human patients with
MIBC.
The research proposed in this application is innovative, in our opinion, because it represents a new and
substantive paradigm shift in drug research and development, using the dog as a spontaneous animal disease
model to characterize the preclinical efficacy of chemotherapeutic candidates. This contribution will be significant
as it will streamline the development of new therapeutic strategies in man and man’s best friend with bladder
cancer. Ultimately, the research proposed in this R21 grant will lay the foundation to an R01 application focusing
on the development of new therapeutics using canine MIBC as a preclinical model for candidate drug testing in
collaboration with the NCI.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10928390
- **Project number:** 7R21CA267372-03
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA
- **Principal Investigator:** Karin Allenspach
- **Activity code:** R21 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2023
- **Award amount:** $137,650
- **Award type:** 7
- **Project period:** 2024-02-15 → 2024-12-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10928390

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10928390, Using Canine Organoids to Advance Therapeutic Drug Development in Bladder Cancer (7R21CA267372-03). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-26 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10928390. Licensed CC0.

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