Identification of cancer stem cells in canine inflammatory mammary carcinoma

• Grant number: 23/00362-1
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Master's degree
• Start date: August 28, 2023
• End date: February 27, 2024
• Field of knowledge: Agronomical Sciences - Veterinary Medicine - Animal Pathology
• Principal Investigator: Ricardo de Francisco Strefezzi
• Grantee: Bethânia Almeida Gouveia
• Supervisor: Laura Peña
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Medicina Veterinária e Zootecnia (FMVZ). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM), Spain
• Associated to the scholarship: 21/14542-6 - Decorin, E-cadherin and EGFR expression in canine inflammatory mammary carcinoma and their relationship with prognosis, BP.MS

Abstract

More than 70% of the cases of mammary tumours in female dogs are malignant, and inflammatory mammary carcinoma (IMC) are the most aggressive variant in dogs and women. IMC is a progressive fulminant disease characterized as rapid growth, invasion and metastases. Cancer stem cells (CSCs) play a crucial role in inflammatory breast cancer (IBC) in women. CSCs have been detected showing a CD44+ / CD24- phenotype, or with low expression of CD24. This pattern has been related to a poor prognosis in humans. This phenotype has been described in canine mammary neoplasms but are still controversial, and no studies evaluated the expression of CSCs markers specifically in IMC. Considering that this is the most aggressive mammary neoplasm in female dogs, as well as its similarity to IBC in women, it is important to study the population of CSCs in search of new prognostic and predictive markers for this disease. The objectives of this project are: to perform a histopathology training in mammary neoplasms diagnoses and grading under the supervision of Dr Laura Peña; to characterize the immunohistochemical expressions of CD44 and CD24 in IMCs; and to compare the expressions of these markers in IMCs with non-inflammatory carcinomas, as well as post-surgical survival and mortality. Forty IMC samples from FZEA-USP and Complutense University of Madrid will be evaluated through immunohistochemistry. Information on the history of the animals will be obtained, and the tumours will be classified according to Goldschmidt et al. (2011) and separated into IMC and non-inflammatory for the statistical analyses. (AU)