Circulating microRNA (miRNA) assays for canine cancer detection are research-stage tools with promising diagnostic accuracy for specific tumor types, but no validated commercial miRNA panel is currently available for clinical use in dogs. The commercially available blood-based cancer screening test in dogs (OncoK9/PetDx) uses cell-free DNA (cfDNA) analyzed by next-generation sequencing to identify cancer-associated genomic alterations — it is not a miRNA assay.Journal of Vete…

For mammary carcinoma, serum miR-19b and miR-125a are the best-characterized candidate biomarkers. Both are significantly elevated in dogs with histologically confirmed mammary carcinoma compared to healthy controls, with receiver operating characteristic area under the curve (AUC) of 0.930 for miR-125a and 0.880 for miR-19b.Journal of Vete… Serum miR-18a is elevated specifically in mammary carcinoma dogs with histologic evidence of lymphatic invasion, giving it potential prognostic rather than purely diagnostic utility.Journal of Vete… No miRNA showed significant association with survival in that cohort.Journal of Vete…

For splenic hemangiosarcoma, a four-miRNA panel — miR-126-5p, miR-150-5p, miR-452-5p, and miR-543 — discriminates hemangiosarcoma from noncancerous splenic masses, with miR-543 upregulated 8.9-fold in hemangiosarcoma dogs.American Journa… Whether this panel performs equivalently for hemangiosarcoma in non-splenic locations has not been established.American Journa…

For gastrointestinal cancer versus chronic inflammatory enteropathy, fecal and serum miRNA panels show the strongest diagnostic performance reported across any canine cancer miRNA work to date. Fecal miR-451 achieves AUC 0.955 (sensitivity 86.4%, specificity 100%), fecal miR-223 achieves AUC 0.918 (sensitivity 90.9%, specificity 80%), and fecal miR-27a achieves AUC 0.868 (sensitivity 81.8%, specificity 90%) for distinguishing gastrointestinal cancer from chronic inflammatory enteropathy.Journal of Vete… On the serum side, miR-652 achieves AUC 0.943 (sensitivity 90.5%, specificity 90%), miR-148a-3p achieves AUC 0.924 (sensitivity 85.7%, specificity 90%), and miR-20b achieves AUC 0.905 (sensitivity 90.5%, specificity 90%).Journal of Vete… Combining fecal miR-451 and miR-223 improves performance to AUC 0.973 (sensitivity 95.5%, specificity 90%).Journal of Vete…

For hepatobiliary disease, a serum panel of miR-21, miR-122, miR-126, miR-200c, and miR-222 is proposed to differentiate acute hepatitis, chronic hepatitis, hepatocellular adenoma, hepatocellular carcinoma, and hepatic lymphoma in dogs, though this panel distinguishes disease categories rather than functioning as a pure cancer screen.Journal of Vete… Circulating miR-122 and miR-29a also correlate with fibrosis stage and chronic hepatitis progression in Labrador Retrievers, where ALT has low sensitivity for detecting hepatitis and may fall within the reference range in advanced fibrosis.Journal of Vete…

The cfDNA liquid biopsy (OncoK9) is the only blood-based cancer detection tool with published clinical-practice data in dogs, with cancer detection evaluated across more than 350 dogs in a retrospective audit.Journal of Vete… That audit quantified the incremental benefit of adding liquid biopsy to the standard wellness visit, though miRNA assays were not part of that platform.Journal of Vete…

Would you like to know how the cfDNA liquid biopsy (OncoK9) performs for specific cancer types or disease stages in dogs?