Combined with surgery to remove tumours, Bridle says the treatment is "much more precise" than traditional radiation and chemotherapy, targeting just the cancer cells, and not healthy cells as well.

Because it doesn't attack healthy cells it is "less invasive," with less side-effects than traditional cancer treatments, says Bridle.

The researchers already have six cats enrolled in the program and are hoping to recruit 24, partnering with veterinary clinics across southern Ontario.

Lichty calls it a "stepping stone trial," rather than "old-school, guinea pig, mouse experiments."

"Usually we make this huge leap from mouse experiments to humans. And I think many things fail because they try to make that leap," he says.

Lichty says cats "get real cancer," as opposed to research mice in labs that are injected with it.

Instead of using mice in a lab, "the point of the exercise is actually to help the animal, to treat their cancer and ideally cure them," says Lichty.

Not only are the cancers found in cats more similar to those found in humans, "nobody is going to come to us to treat a mouse for cancer," adds Bridle.

Bridle says cancer treatment in cats and dogs are often more about making them comfortable than treating the disease as many people deem chemotherapy and radiation "too inhumane" for pets.

"That tells you a lot about how severe these treatments are and what we do with our kids and family members and so on when we treat them for cancer," he says.

"When a child gets diagnosed with leukemia, there's sort of this pre-set regiment that's followed of things like chemo, radiation therapy and bone-marrow transplants, he adds.

"It's a three-year long treatment and incredibly intense. They spend months and months out of those three years hospitalized and often in intensive care units. That's really the driving force for us, the team behind this research."

The research is funded by the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation. The team is also in the process of developing a similar study for dogs with lymphoma.

The researchers say they'll try to start a clinical trial in humans using the same strategy, if the cat study is successful.

mwarren@guelphmercury.com