Research

Mapping the feline cancer genome opens new frontiers for human cancer treatment

Indeed, a recent study published in Science shows that feline tumours share key mutations, driver genes and biological mechanisms with human ones

by Michela Moretti

24 April 2026

3' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

3' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

For the first time, the feline cancer genome has been mapped and closely resembles that of humans. The study helps in the understanding of breast cancer and skin cancer and in the development of therapies for both species.

Bob, the stray cat who became a symbol of rebirth in James Bowen's autobiographical bestseller, had already 'saved' a life. Now his fellow cats could help save many more. A recent study published in Science shows that feline tumours share key mutations, driver genes and biological mechanisms with human ones.

It is the first large-scale map of the cancer genome in the domestic cat, and indicates that felines can become valuable allies in accelerating cancer research, paving the way for clinical trials conducted in parallel on the two species. The speed at which feline tumours develop, which is much faster than in humans, would be exploited to test new drugs and protocols more quickly.

The study and the 'great guardian' gene

"One of the greatest developments ever recorded in feline oncology," called the study's senior author, Louise van der Weyden of the Wellcome Sanger Institute in Cambridge, leading an international team that involved the Ontario Veterinary College, the University of Bern and the Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine in New York State.

The team analysed 493 tumour tissue samples from cats in five countries, covering 13 different types of neoplasia.

One of the most interesting results concerns the TP53 gene, the 'great guardian' of the genome: it was mutated in 33% of feline tumours, almost identical to the 34% observed in human tumours.

Not a coincidence, but a profound clue and confirmation that cancer seems to arise from the breakdown of defence mechanisms that life has built up over hundreds of millions of years. Mechanisms that are, essentially, identical in all species. As Harold Varmus and J. Michael Bishop, winners of the 1989 Nobel Prize, demonstrated in 1976, stating that oncogenes arise from normal cellular genes present in all species.

Avvistato nel Borneo il gatto dalla testa piatta, uno dei felini piu' rari al mondo

The similarities with human tumours

The most clinically relevant similarities between cat and human cancers highlighted in the study in Science concern mammary carcinomas. Breast cancer is one of the most aggressive forms of cancer in cats and, until now, the genetic mechanisms that drive it were largely unknown. Research has identified seven driver genes responsible for the development of these tumours.

The most common is FBXW7, altered in more than half of the feline samples analysed: in humans, mutations in the same gene in breast cancer are associated with a worse prognosis. The second most frequent gene in these tumours is PIK3CA, present in 47% of cases, also known from human breast oncology, where it is treated with PI3K inhibitors now in clinical use.

Significant parallelisms were also found in skin tumours: most feline cutaneous squamous cell carcinomas are associated with UV radiation damage, just as in similar human forms. A fact that, according to the researchers, is not only genetic, but also environmental: cats live in the same houses as their owners, breathe the same air, are exposed to the same chemicals and solar radiation.

The vision of One Medicine

"We are no longer looking at these issues as separate, but as a shared biological challenge," said Dr Latasha Ludwig, co-author of the study and a veterinarian at Cornell University. "We can use the information we find in people to translate it to cats, and from cats to humans."

The samples from the 493 cats analysed are now an open resource for the international scientific community and reinforce the vision of One Medicine, i.e. the idea that veterinary and human medicine are not parallel worlds, but two sides of the same biology. And cat tumours are an open window on human cancer, built from hundreds of millions of years of shared evolution.