
Vaccine Trials Give Hope to Dogs
In people, a diagnosis of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma is scary enough. In dogs, well, that’s a whole other problem. While it’s not a common occurrence, it’s often devastating. Now, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania’s schools of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine are demonstrating the first glimmers of hope: they have developed a vaccine. So far, so good. According to Penn Vet’s assistant professor Nicola Mason, the aim is to either prevent, or at the very least delay recurrence of the disease.
From Science Daily:
The team recruited dogs that were brought to Penn’s Matthew J. Ryan Veterinary Hospital with newly diagnosed non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma to receive the experimental vaccine following standard induction chemotherapy and confirmation of clinical remission.
“We vaccinated dogs, which were in clinical remission following chemotherapy, three times,” Mason said. “We then tracked them over several years to see if the vaccine would prevent relapse and would prolong overall survival.
“We found that, although the vaccinated dogs still relapsed with clinical disease when they were treated with rescue chemotherapy, they had significantly increased overall survival times when compared to an unvaccinated control group. Some of these dogs are still alive and cancer free more than three years later.”
This is how veterinary advances happen – one research success at a time.
Do you have a dog that has had or currently has non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma? Share with us.
Photo credits: Rocco Taco, one of our fans at Pet Health Central on Facebook.
Tags: cat, dog, healthcare, petcare
David, great post. Let”s hope this leads to a vaccine for all dogs as soon as possible, so no pet parents have to face this difficult diagnosis…
Great job for all you do.
Great job for all you do. I agree with you kelly.
awesome
This would be fabulous. I know I would be distressed if my dogs were diagnosed with something as serious. Good post. Sharing.
I wish this had been available 4 years ago when my Golden was diagnosed. She died in less than 3 months.
Wendy, I am so sorry to hear about your Golden. Even though it has been a few years, it”s always hard to lose a dog you loved. Do you have another dog now?
I”m so glad that people like the people from the University of Pennsylvania care so much about animals and are doing what they can to help them 🙂
Great post!
Must-read article! “Vaccine Trials Give Hope to Dogs” http://t.co/PuqxbQGK
Does this mean you want news hints?
You”ll have to email me, computer crashed.
I don”t have a dog who has non-Hodgkin”s, but I have a friend that did. I am thrilled to hear that there is something being done to help.