NASH COUNTY, N.C. (WNCN) — One in four dogs will get cancer at some point during their lifetime, and sometimes there aren’t a lot of options for treatment. An experimental vaccine is showing promise in treating some types of canine cancer, and a Nash County dog is part of a clinical trial testing that vaccine.
Even after hours at the vet, Bernie’s tail keeps wagging.
“He’s like the happiest boy. He’s always happy to see you,” said Shelley Milburn.
Milburn, who runs nonprofit Promoting Animal Welfare in North Carolina (PAWNC), took Bernie in after he was left behind at a home. Bernie has 3 legs, but he doesn’t let that slow him down.
“He quickly became part of our family,” Milburn noted.
But recently, she noticed something concerning.
“I was petting him, and I just felt a knot,” she said.
A biopsy of the mass in the area near his tail revealed cancer, and not just any cancer — a rare cancer called extraskeletal osteosarcoma.
“Dr. Doka was like, ‘This is the worst case scenario,'” Milburn recalled.
Dr. Rhiannon Doka is a veterinary medical oncologist with Wake Veterinary Medical Center. She described Bernie’s cancer as, “Unfortunately, an aggressive tumor type … with a survival of usually only a couple months.”
In addition to getting surgery and chemotherapy, Bernie is part of a clinical trial testing a vaccine to treat canine cancer. Dr. Mark Mamula, a professor of medicine at Yale University, and cofounder of the company Therajan, developed it.
“This is what’s called an immunotherapy. This is a strategy that has truly changed the landscape of treating human cancers,” Mamula explained, adding that human and canine cancers share a lot of similarities. “The great thing about developing new strategies for treating tumors, either in dogs or in humans, is that the cancers that exist in dogs are virtually identical to those that exist in humans. The same types of metastases occur, the same mutations.
“Our therapy that we’ve developed is similar to those strategies used in humans,” Mamula continued. “It’s designed to target and attack EGFR and HER2 family of tumor proteins on the dog cancer.”
Mamula and his team are testing the treatment in three types of canine cancer: bladder cancer, osteosarcoma (bone cancer), and hemangiosarcoma, which affects the spleen. After several years of clinical trials in about 400 dogs, he says the results look promising.
“Survival for some of these types of cancer can be upwards of twice the survival rate of conventional therapy,” he noted.
The vaccine is used in combination with other therapies — in Bernie’s case, surgery and chemotherapy.
“What we’ve learned in treating human cancers will probably be the most effective way to treat both human and canine cancers,” Mamula explained. “Throw as many different strategies and therapies at a type of cancer as possible, and they collaborate and they overlap in helping to rid tumors or prevent tumor growth.”
Milburn takes Bernie to a vet in Richmond, Va. — the closest clinical trial site. There are about a dozen sites across the country. Dogs receive two vaccines, spaced about three weeks apart.
“It’s like a 10-15 minute process,” Milburn noted. “No side effects.”
Bernie’s quality of life is especially important to Milburn, who is a cancer survivor herself.
“I’ve had breast cancer, and the same mechanism of the HER2, which is responsive to the vaccine for him, can also benefit breast cancer patients that have the HER2 expression in their tumors, so I think it’s amazing,” she explained.
About two months after diagnosis, Bernie has a nodule on his lung but has not experienced regrowth of the original tumor.
“He’s already two-plus months since surgery, so he’s doing, all things considered, pretty well,” said Doka.
While they don’t yet know whether the vaccine will slow the progression of Bernie’s cancer, Milburn says she has no regrets, and she knows she did everything she could for him. She hopes the knowledge gained from the study will help other dogs, or perhaps even people.
“Even if it isn’t hugely successful or extends his life, he was part of something that could be huge,” she said.
