Comparative Oncology Shows Promise in Treating Lymphoma

Exciting news from the University of Pennsylvania vet school about a new drug that has proved promising in the treatment of a type of lymphoma.

Dogs with lymphoma usually respond well to chemotherapy but frequently relapse within a year. This new drug was injected directly into a lymph node of dogs with a specific type of lymphoma that had relapsed. One week after a single dose of this peptide was injected, the lymph node that received the treatment was much smaller than the other cancerous ones that did not.

According to head researcher, Dr. Nicola Mason, "This suggests that the peptide either acts alone or synergistically with the chemotherapy drugs to kill the tumor cells.

Mason and her colleagues are now examining whether this treatment can be as effective when introduced intravenously rather than injected directly into the cancerous lymph node.

This research is a cutting edge example of comparative oncology, the "bench to bedside" approach being promoted by the NIH among others. The new drug has shown to have minimal side effects in dogs and a larger trial in animals with similar results cold pave the way to clinical trials in humans.