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Cancer vaccine for dogs

Daisy is a 12-year-old lab, and Jim Peterson's best friend. She's been with him since she was a pup, so she's like a child. You can imagine his desperation almost a year ago when the beloved pet was diagnosed with oral melanoma, a lethal skin cancer. "Everything goes through your mind from death to chemo to radiation to what can we do?" says Jim.  

That's when his vet told him about a cancer vaccine for dogs. Originally designed for studies in people with melanoma, it's made from a protein in human DNA.

"It's very similar genetically to the dog, but it's just different enough that the dog's immune system can recognize it as, as something that shouldn't be in the body and that makes the immune system then create antibodies against it," says Dr.  

Those antibodies keep cancer from coming back, but surgeons had to remove the tumor first. They removed Daisy's entire jaw on the one side because it was in the middle of the length of the jaw.

After daisy recovered and doctors were sure all the cancer was gone, the vaccinations began. She has since been staged with x-rays and is still in a good remission which basically means that the cancer is not evident anywhere in her body.

Research shows the human DNA vaccine can prolong a dog's survival from a couple of months to a couple of years. That's not just good news for Jim and Daisy. Since dogs and people develop melanoma in the same way, Researchers say the vaccine may improve cancer treatment in both.

The United States Department of Agriculture has granted Merial, the vaccine company, conditional approval to treat dogs with melanoma. It's the first time the government has approved a therapeutic vaccine for cancer in either animals or humans. For more information, talk to your veterinarian.