Category: Animal Medical Center

DNA-based vaccine triples survival for dogs with melanoma

April 14, 2003

The options for treating advanced melanoma are limited - regardless of whether the patient is a dog or a human. Because this deadly cancer is virtually resistant to chemotherapy and radiation in its late stages, new approaches are being investigated including vaccines that harness the immune system. For nine dogs that naturally developed canine malignant melanoma, treatment with a new DNA-based vaccine more than tripled their median survival from an expected 90 days to an average of 389 days.