On the tails (sorry for the pun) of my most recent article for the Penn Gazette on comparative oncology, comes some great news from the University of Illinois, where researchers have identified a new target for the treatment of lymphoma. They are testing a new drug on this target in dogs who already have this disease.
And most astounding news of all is that the drug seems to be working. In fact, at low doses, the medicine, named S-PAC-1, "arrested the growth of tumors in three of six dogs tested and induce partial remission in a fourth."
As for side effects, well according to the study, they were "mild." More importantly there was no brain damage (neurotoxicity) from the drug. Apparently adjusting the dosage, minimized or eliminated what side effects there were.
Researchers emphasize that these results are preliminary and that approval by the FDA for use in humans could take years. However, the study was funded by the NIH, as part of their comparative oncology program and they will continue to support a clinical trial of S-PAC-1 in companion animal dogs.
"If you look at the genetic signatures of canine lymphoma and human lymphoma, they're very, very similar and their response to therapy is very, very similar," said one of the study's lead investigators, Paul Hergenrother. "So there's lots of reasons to be optimistic about a compound that has some effect in the canines, that it could have a similar effect in humans."
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