North Carolina State University and one of its professors applied for a patent regarding a method of diagnosing bladder cancer in dogs.

N.C. State University and Matthew Breen, a professor in its College of Veterinary Medicine, filed a patent application with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on Oct. 6.

The patent includes a method for detecting cancer in dogs where they measure different DNA copies to see if they are elevated or reduced from a normal control sample.

The type of cancer is called transitional cell carcinoma, or TCC, and is also known as urothelial carcinoma. It is the most common urinary tract neoplasm in a dog and can be found in the bladder lining and potentially invade the bladder wall and layers of muscle.

Depending on the outcome of the DNA copy number tests, a dog may be selected for surgery, radiation therapy or chemotherapy.

According to the patent, 4.2 million dogs are diagnosed with cancer every year in the U.S. The types of dogs most affected to this specific cancer include Scottish terriers, Shetland sheepdogs, West Highland white terriers, Wire/Fox terriers and beagles.

In October 2015, Breen was listed as an inventor of a patent filed by the Broad Institute, trustees of Tufts College, N.C. State, and Regents of the University of Minnesota. This patent was for the invention of methods and compositions to identify subjects, including dogs, that have elevated risk of developing cancer or having an undiagnosed cancer.

In July 2015, Breen also applied for a patent with N.C. State that regarded methods for predicting a disease free time interval for a patient with cancer that was under consideration for chemotherapy.   This was further refined in February 2016 and detailed the methods that involve obtaining samples from patients and detecting a copy of chromosomes.

Breen was a charter member, and now serves on the board of directors, of the Canine Comparative Oncology and Genomics Consortium, a not-for-profit organization established to promote the role of the dog in comparative biomedical research.

Note: This story is from the North Carolina Business News Wire, a service of UNC-Chapel Hill’s School of Media and Journalism