The creation of the Comparative Oncology Trials Consortium Pharmacodynamic Core: Infrastructure for a virtual laboratory

The National Cancer Institute–Comparative Oncology Trials Consortium (NCI–COTC) aims to inform the development path of novel drugs and biologicals for human cancer patients through their evaluation in dogs with neoplasia. The advent of sophisticated clinical trials in veterinary medicine requires additional infrastructure to evaluate tissue and fluid end-points vital to questions relating to drug activity, targeting and toxicity. Pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic end-points necessitate a centralized laboratory for quality controlled assay development and execution. Establishing the COTC Pharmacodynamic Core (PD Core) has addressed the need for uniform end-point analysis by serving as a virtual laboratory that capitalizes on the expertise of the COTC community of investigators. Veterinary biomarker validation is a secondary benefit of these efforts. The PD Core exemplifies the construction of a successful infrastructure within the veterinary research community in line with advances in technology and focused on improving the health and quality of life of both human and animal cancer patients.