New Cancer Vaccine For Dogs

So the first canine cancer vaccine has hit the market. It is called Oncept and it is designed to treat oral cancer. I remember when I was sitting in the waiting room at Penn while Bentley was getting his chemo and met some people whose dogs had oral cancer. Trust me it is nasty and often requires jaw and mouth surgery that make it difficult for the dog to eat.

The vaccine seems to be of the targeted gene response model. That is, it contains a substance that is similar enough to the dog's own genetic material that it targets canine melanoma cells, and different enough that it generates the dog's immune system to fight those cells. The material, by the way, is found in human DNA.

I have no idea how expensive this drug is but it has met with pretty good results. Dogs with Stage II or III oral melanoma survived longer after tumor removal when they were vaccinated than those who were not. Typical survival rates for those with Stage II or III oral melanoma is about 6 months after the tumor is removed, without vaccination.

Which brings me to the lymphoma vaccine trial that is no longer ongoing at Penn. The results are pending publication so I am not at liberty to say much other than the vaccine they generated was successful but not in the manner that they had originally envisioned.

The bottom line here seems to be that for the moment the tried and true cancer therapies for dogs are still the gold standard although research is making great strides.