Cancer treatment for dogs could one day save humans

Heidi Richmond walks her dog, Grizz, who is being treated with the canine melanoma vaccine. The medication is a form of immunotherapy, teaching the dog's immune system to fight the cancer.

Ray Boone, Deseret News

MURRAY The lifelong bonding between humans and dogs is eloquent. Dogs are loved as members of families. And just like family members, when they become ill, owners want them to have the best medical care.

It appears dogs and humans are much more alike genetically than was originally believed, and what's saving their lives could save human lives as well.

In fact, researchers are "going to the dogs," so to speak, to form a unique partnership.

At Cottonwood Animal Hospital in Murray, Heidi Richmond's dog "Grizz" is being treated with a vaccine that's a form of immunotherapy. The treatment is approved only for oral melanomas in dogs, but designed from human genetics. Veterinarian Nathan Cox said this kind of match-up intrigues researchers.

"The genetics of cancer in dogs is very similar to what it is in people," Cox said, "and that allows us a baseline to be able to study cancer in an alternate species."

With traditional therapy, a dog with melanoma undergoes surgery or radiation to debulk the tumor, he said. Dogs' average lifespan after treatment, without the vaccine, is usually less than six months.

"It's (the vaccine) really changed the game," Cox said. "It's been more effective than chemotherapy has been for oral melanoma in dogs."

For Grizz and other dogs with cancer, this human genetic product is different enough to trigger an immune response, but similar enough to the dogs' own melanoma to cross react, training the immune system to attack the cancer cells.

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Cancer treatment for dogs could one day save humans