Canine cancer is a nightmare that most pet parents would do anything to avoid. Unfortunately, it’s a reality that many pups and their guardians have to endure. According to the American Veterinary Medical Association, approximately half of all dogs over the age of 10 will develop cancer; the risk is even higher for purebred dogs. But a new vaccine is showing promising results when it comes to preventing cancer in dogs.
Dr. Stephen A. Johnston, the director for the Center for Innovations in Medicine at The Biodesign Institute and a professor in the School of Life Sciences at Arizona State University, began working on a vaccine against dog cancer over a decade ago. In 2018, The Open Philanthropy Project awarded Dr. Johnston a 6.4 million dollar grant to begin putting his vaccine to the test. The Vaccination Against Canine Cancer Study (VACCS trial), a five-year study that is currently underway, is the largest ever clinical trial on canine cancer.
The vaccine is preventative; rather than curing cancer, it aims to keep dogs cancer-free. “We believe cancer preventative vaccines have a higher expected value than curative cancer therapies, since an effective vaccine would likely be a less expensive way to provide decades of healthy life compared to current cancer therapies, which often only extend life for a few months or years,” the Open Philanthropy Project grant announcement said.
The trial participants are healthy dogs who live at home and receive biannual exams. Some of the dogs receive the real vaccine, while others receive a placebo. Dogs receiving the placebo should develop cancer at typical rates; the researchers can then measure those numbers against the vaccinated pups. All dogs participating in the study, whether they receive the vaccine or not, will be given a credit toward cancer-related medical expenses.
So far, “results show a reduction in the number of tumors for about 65 percent of dogs vaccinated,” Daily Paws reported. Researchers originally aimed to prevent eight types of canine cancer (mast cell tumors, osteosarcoma, lymphoma, melanoma, mammary cancer, lung cancer, soft tissue carcinomas, and hemangiosarcoma), but the results have not shown a reduction in all eight.
Mast cell tumors and adrenal tumors were reduced, but others, including hemangiosarcoma (a very common and rapidly-spreading canine cancer), were not. Dr. Johnston feels confident that they can improve results with what they have learned so far. “We now know why — we just didn’t put the right components in. So, the next version will have components for hemangiosarcoma,” Dr. Johnston told Daily Paws.
