Research Studies
Canine Cancer Alliance focuses on advancing immunotherapy to help dogs with cancer.
The following studies are supported by your generous donations.
Prof. Mamula with Ranger who became cancer-free after his metastatic osteosarcoma was treated with the vaccine.
EGFR/HER2 Canine Cancer Vaccine
In Nov 2022, a new study opened for canine patients with osteosarcoma, hemangiosarcoma and other cancer types associated with EGFR/HER2 overexpression. See the status to find out which clinics are participating in the study.
Learn more about the benefits of the vaccine including prevention of metastasis here.
Researchers are focused on making the vaccine available at more clinics and improving the efficacy so that even more dogs can enjoy long, durable remission.
Gut Microbiome and Cancer
With human patients, researchers can now correlate successful immunotherapy response to the patient's gut microbiome composition.
This study will analyze the gut microbiome from canine patients receiving immunotherapy treatments at multiple time points during their treatment. The goal is to to be able to help more cancer patients respond to immunotherapy and survive longer through modulation of the microbiome, for example, via diet change or with the help of fecal transplant.
This study is a collaborative effort between Oregon State University, Yale University and private clinics.
CAR-T Therapy for Solid Tumors
With CAR-T immunotherapy, the patient's T-cells are modified so that they can target cancer cells much more effectively. The potential of CAR-T therapy has been demonstrated in treating human blood cancers, but not in solid tumors or in canine patients.
This study is exploring how CAR-T therapy might be used to treat solid tumors to help canine patients. A collaborative effort between Northwestern University and University of Illinois, the trial is now enrolling patients with hemangiosarcoma.
Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR)-T therapy works by modifying the immune cells called T cells (a type of white blood cell) to find and fight cancer much more effectively.
General Immune Stimulating Therapy
The ongoing pilot trial is evaluating the efficacy of mycobacterial cell wall fraction (MCWF) - Immunocidin - in preventing metastasis of dogs with osteosarcoma and other aggressive solid tumors.
An additional new study is being planned for Transitional Cell Carcinoma (Bladder Cancer) canine patients, in collaboration with North Carolina State University, and is expected to open in early 2023.
After 1-year old Rigsby was diagnosed with fibrosarcoma, his vet began treating him with Immunocidin as part of a new study.
IL-12 Cytokine To Fight Solid Tumors
Cytokines are powerful molecules that are excreted by immune cells to turn up or turn off the immune system. But because of potential toxic side-effects, direct infusion of immune-stimulatory cytokines have not been used. A team has now figured out a new way to introduce IL-12 into tumors safely and effectively fight cancer. This work, originally launched in Seattle, is now led by a team at Northwestern University and began enrolling canine patients in February 2022 at Missouri University.