Dogs could help cure cancer because they share many of the same tumour-causing genes as humans, a Harvard study has found.

Research has revealed for the first time that humans and dogs share many of the same genetic causes of cancer.

Tumours from almost 700 dogs were compared to those of human patients and revealed dogs have 18 mutation “hotspots” which are likely the root cause of the cancer.

Comparison with human cases found that eight of the 18 “hotspots” were also seen in humans.

The findings boost hopes that dogs could be used in the future as a way to test potential drugs that may work on dog tumours as well as human ones.

Scientists have already been looking at using dogs as a way to better study cancer, because they are unique in that they are the only species we share our environment with.

Mice and other lab animals are often used to study human diseases, but often the findings in these animals do not translate to people.

Cancer is caused by a combination of both genetic and hereditary factors, and now we know humans and our canine pets have both of these elements in common.

“Our findings better position canines as a translational model of human cancer to investigate a wide spectrum of targeted therapies,” the study authors from MIT, Harvard and the University of Georgia write in their study, published in Scientific Reports.

Christina Lopes, a co-author of the study and the chief executive of One Health Company, added: “The results of this study show the incredible potential of combining canine cancer genomics and big data analysis to save lives on both ends of the leash.

“Human cancer research has been moving toward a genomics-based treatment paradigm for decades, but research on canine cancer genomics hasn’t kept up. This study filled in the last missing puzzle piece for comparative oncology.”