Canine Cancer Vaccine

I've been wanting to share this information for a while but wanted to wait until there was a bit more data and history with the treatment. The company I work for is a biotech company that is owned by a venture capital firm that runs several different biotechs. One of the companies is focused on a canine cancer vaccine therapy. I was just talking to the girl who performs the actual processing of the tumors and was able to get some further information from her, to share.

Right now, it's a very small operation in terms of treatment availability. We have one local vet that is allowing us to work out of his facility to process the tumors and treat the dogs. Because of this, (and various other regulations) the tumor removal surgery and treatment has to be performed in this vet's office in Maryland. Obviously this is a limiting factor to many here but I still wanted to pass along the information for anyone who may find it helpful or may think it can help someone else. Even someone who is not local may be willing to travel a bit to the facility. Our hope is that, obviously, we can expand enough to treat dogs in various locations. Ideally we'd like to be able to have tumors shipped to us, process them, create the vaccine then ship it back to the dog's vet, wherever they may be located. We currently do this, with a very similar treatment platform, for humans.

This isn't a sales pitch. I'm simply happy to be able to pass along a relatively new, safe and viable option for treating this nasty disease that has taken so many of our precious pets. If nothing else, it's interesting information to read and I think gives us some more hope for future treatment options.

Here is the link to the vet's page about the vaccine: http://www.mcahonline.com/new.html There are 2 PDF files on the site. One is a flyer/overview of the treatment and the other is an article with the detailed information about the science behind the treatment.

I'll read it over, Amanda, as I haven't had a chance to yet--but do you know the cost approximately? I know that when I was looking into treatment options for Pete, the gene therapy was still experimental, not available in Canada and the cost was $20,000. Just wasn't do-able.

This is a wonderful developement. Please keep us informed on it - I'd like to pass on the info to my vets so they can follow what's happening.

Blanche, the last figure I heard was $3k.