Clinical Trials

Few new therapies exist for the treatment of dog cancers. Surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation have been utilized for decades to treat a variety of dog cancers. Canine EGFR/HER2 Peptide Cancer Immunotherapeutic is a newly developed vaccination that is reported to stimulate immune responses, antibodies and T cells, specific for tumor surface proteins EGFR/HER2. So called “lmmunotherapy” has revolutionized the care of human cancers and is now being investigated for safety and efficacy in canine cancer. This is a USDA regulated scientific study with the goal of obtaining approval that will allow greater availability of the vaccine to treat more dogs

The purpose of this clinical study is to evaluate activity level, using a commercially available activity tracking device and pressure mat analysis as a way to assess pain and/or distress in dogs undergoing radiation therapy. Healthy dogs are also invited to participate in the study as a control. They hypothesized that animals get less active and do not sleep well when they are in pain or distressed, and that animals reduce weight bearing from the affected leg when their leg becomes painful. They expect that activity monitoring is an excellent tool to monitor therapeutic response and track radiation side effects allowing for an opportunity for early intervention.

The purpose of this study is to try and improve our treatment options and outcomes associated with treatment in dogs with lover tumors. This particularly study focuses on intravenous delivery of a substance (microbubbles/nanoparticles containing RNA) to a liver tumor using non-invasive ultrasound guidance.

When liver tumors in dogs cannot be removed with surgery, treatment options are limited or non-existent. In humans, one of the standard treatments for those cases is transarterial chemoembolization (TACE), which eliminates the blood supply of the tumor and may decrease tumor size. The objective of this study are to 1) describe the procedure of TACE using a novel treatment agent in a group of dogs with naturally-occurring liver cancer, and 2) evaluate the effect that liver TACE has on clinical signs, size and viability of the tumor. Demonstrating the feasibility and efficacy of liver TACE to improve clinical signs and decrease tumor size and volume can significantly advance our treatment of this difficult disease process, as current treatment options are limited and lack efficacy. Addiotionally, liver TACE is minimally invasive and provides many potential advantages over traditional surgical therapies.

BARC is now offering a unique immunotherapy that targets the EGFR/HER2 pathway. Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor (EGFR) is overexpressed on a number of human cancers, and often is indicative of a poor outcome.They are hoping to induce a polyclonal anti-EGFR/HER2 tumor antigen response by vaccine therapy.

Paclitaxel is the drug of choice in humans with angiosarcoma and needs to be re-evaluated in dogs. Paclitaxel has historically not been well tolerated in dogs in its original formulation. This new formulation hopes to mitigate those side effects and have efficacy in this disease.

A randomized, blinded, placebo-controlled field study safety of a multivalent peptide vaccine to treat hemangiosarcoma in dogs. This trial seeks to stimulate the patient’s immune system to detect (“Scout out”) and kill cancer cells.

This clinical trial evaluates the response to an experimental form of chemotherapy called IF7-SN38. IF7 is a seven-amino acid peptide and SN38 is a metabolite of irinotecan, a cytotoxic drug that has been used as a chemotherapeutic for over two decades.

Dogs who develop lung metastasis from cancer elsewhere in the body often have few to no effective treatment options. Recent clinical research in people supports better outcomes when radiation is combined with systemic chemotherapy or immunotherapy. The purpose of this clinical trial is to treat dogs with oligometastasis (5 or fewer lung masses) with radiation to those lesions plus a new immunotherapy designed for dogs that will allow the immune system to “see” the cancer cells after radiation, hopefully enhancing the effect of the radiation treatment.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate if novel adjuvant treatments riluzole and sulfasalazine, 2 oral drugs already approved by the FDA can be safely combined with surgery and doxorubicin for improving the long-
term outcomes in dogs with splenic hemangiosarcoma. The objective of this trial is to distinguish the toxicity profiles of these combined treatments and determine a difference in biological activity if one exists in pet dogs receiving treatment.

To evaluate the safety, biologic effects, and antitumor activity of combined trametinib and sapanisertib given to dogs with measurable malignant tumors.

ACI is currently enrolling patients in a multicenter, randomized, placebo controlled clinical trial to evaluate the effectiveness of transdermal ondansetron for the prevention of nausea and vomiting in dogs undergoing chemotherapy with doxorubicin.

Embolization is a minimally invasive cancer treatment in which particles are used to block the blood supply to a tumor. For liver tumors, the particles are delivered to the tumor using a catheter (long, thin tube) placed into an artery in the neck or thigh and threaded through the blood vessel until it reaches the specific blood vessel providing blood to the tumor (TAE). In some cases, chemotherapy is delivered directly to the tumor through this catheter immediately prior to delivering the particles that block the blood vessel (TACE). Both TAE and TACE are used to treat liver tumors in dogs, but it is unknown if adding chemotherapy to embolization has any benefit over embolization alone. The first purpose of this study is to compare the outcomes of dogs receiving TAE to dogs receiving TACE.

The goal of this research is to test blood samples from dogs with early stage cancers to determine both new approaches for the early diagnosis/screening as well as new ways to potentially treat or prevent cancer in dogs.

The goal of the Shine On Project is to develop a simple and reliable test that can predict the risk of dogs to develop hemangiosarcoma or other life-threatening cancers, and to combine that with an intervention that alters that risk, effectively preventing, or at least delaying the onset of cancer. The drug eBAT is effective as a component of the treatment of hemangiosarcoma and other tumors. Among the unique features of this drug are its remarkable safety and its modes of action, as it works not only by killing malignant tumor cells, but also by creating an inhospitable environment that makes it difficult for tumors to grow. This Shine On Continuation phase is specifically for testing the efficacy of eBAT in prevention.

In humans, fluorescent dyes are used to identify liver tumors and determine appropriate tissue margins for complete surgical removal. This same technique may be used in dogs with liver tumors and as it does in people, the fluorescence imaging may guide surgeons in determining the required margins to remove the entire tumor.

The University of Missouri Veterinary Medical Center is enrolling patients into a clinical trial evaluating the safety and effectiveness of a new immunotherapy, the Vaccine Peptide Library (VPL), when given to dogs with cancer. Studies in dogs with cancer will complement current human trials designed to test new doses and effects of this agent.

Recently, the metastatic lesions found in canine HSA where shown to have increased infiltration of monocytes. Immunotherapies aimed at preventing monocyte recruitment and/or mobilization may lead to prolonged survival times in this devastating disease by slowing metastasis. Lostartan is a well-tolerated drug in dogs primary used for hypertension. However, at high doses, losartan that has been shown to decrease monocyte activation and thus losartan maybe a potential antimonocyte, antimetastatic therapy for canine HSA. This study is a prospective, randomized, clinical trial with active control, intended to compare the effects of two drug therapies (doxorubicin paired with immunotherapy, vs. doxorubicin paired with placebo) on the progression free survival time of canine HSA patients after splenectomy.

The main goal of the study is to establish whether propranolol in combination with doxorubicin following surgery improves outcomes for dogs when compared to the use of chemotherapy and surgery alone. The investigators will also evaluate the plasma concentrations of propranolol achieved during dosing to assess whether the levels of propranolol correlate to survival times. If successful, the findings from this approach will be rapidly conveyed to the veterinary community, and the guidelines provided to clinicians for the use of propranolol and doxorubicin for the treatment of canine hemangiosarcoma.

Researchers will utilize a patient-forward approach and leverage genomic insight into hemangiosarcoma to propose and answer the following questions: (1) are there molecular biomarkers that predict prognosis in dogs with this disease?; (2) can we define genomic subgroups of dogs with hemangiosarcoma who are most likely to benefit from specific anticancer drugs?; (3) can we define new therapeutic approaches to prevent the spread of this cancer? This approach follows the road map used in transforming childhood leukemia from a fatal diagnosis to a commonly cured disease. By leveraging the strengths of a unique and multidisciplinary team of clinicians and scientists, this canine hemangiosarcoma study will lay the foundation for accelerating drug development and improving patient outcomes for dogs with this devastating disease.

This investigation explores extracellular glutamate efflux and metabotropic glutamate signaling in sustaining cHSA cell proliferation. If the investigators’ hypothesis is true, current FDA drugs can be repurposed to inhibit glutamate efflux and serve as novel adjuvant strategies for curbing the explosive outgrowth of cHSA cells. Targeting the metabolic dependency of glutamate efflux and consequent paracrine metabotropic signaling could improve the clinical management and survival of pet dogs afflicted with this deadly vascular malignancy.

Regrettably, there has been little improvement in survival in dogs with HSA in the last 30 years. However, modifying how the body’s immune system reacts to the cancer offers new hope for improved survival. This research proposes to use a vaccine that investigators have extensive experience with in canine melanoma and bone cancer (osteosarcoma). New preliminary research indicates that the vaccine target, GD3, is present in HSA, similar to melanoma and osteosarcoma use. Since melanoma and osteosarcoma have shown promising results, investigators hope that dogs with HSA respond similarly to the vaccine.

The goal of the proposed research is to investigate whether HSA has a distinctive odor profile that is detectable by trained dogs. Bio-detection dogs are part of a new and changing face of medical diagnoses and testing. It has already been established that bio-detection dogs can function as unique biosensors, as they possess a sense of smell that can detect changes in odor associated with specific human health conditions and can be trained to communicate which samples are indicative of a specific health condition.

The investigational drug to be used in this study, Paccal Vet, uses a proprietary formulation based on retinol derivatives (XR-17), which encapsulate paclitaxel to form nanosized micelles. Previous studies with Paccal Vet have demonstrated a tolerability profile that is generally similar to other chemotherapy drugs used in veterinary oncology. Moreover, anti-tumor activity in selected cancers in dogs, including mast cell tumors, squamous cell carcinoma, and mammary cancer has also been reported for Paccal Vet. These findings suggest that Paccal Vet may be a promising treatment option for dogs with hemangiosarcoma.

Qualified patients in this fully-funded study (all diagnostics, treatment, and exams) will receive 4 doses of Paccal Vet® chemotherapy and will be monitored for up to 12 months following spleen removal.

Sorafenib is a cancer treatment that has been approved for use in human renal cell carcinoma and hepatocellular carcinoma. It has distinctive inhibitory activity that may be especially valuable in preventing the harmful resistance mechanism known as ‘evasive resistance’ (the promotion of metastasis despite drug activity against the primary tumor). Researchers have previously reported on the tolerability and potential clinical activity of Sorafenib in dogs with cancer. This background provides a rationale for further study of Sorafenib in dogs with cancer. In this study, they aim to define an optimal dosing schedule for Sorafenib and will assess its tolerability and activity in dogs with solid tumors.

The Ethos-PUSH study seeks to deliver a highly advanced program investigating the use of novel drugs for the treatment of hemangiosarcoma (HSA) with the goal of curing this aggressive cancer. This study will ask if drugs specifically matched to these genomic subtypes of patients with HSA can improve their outcomes.

The University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine is currently recruiting dogs recently diagnosed with hemangiosarcoma for clinical research trial. This investigational trial is for the development of a vaccine for future treatment of splenic hemangiosarcoma in dogs.