New treatment for Dogs with Melanoma
Dr. Demian Dressler is internationally recognized as “the dog cancer vet” because of his innovations in the field of dog cancer management, and the popularity of his blog here at Dog Cancer Blog. The owner of South Shore Veterinary Care, a full-service veterinary hospital in Maui, Hawaii, Dr. Dressler studied Animal Physiology and received a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of California at Davis before earning his Doctorate in Veterinary Medicine from Cornell University. After practicing at Killewald Animal Hospital in Amherst, New York, he returned to his home state, Hawaii, to practice at the East Honolulu Pet Hospital before heading home to Maui to open his own hospital. Dr. Dressler consults both dog lovers and veterinary professionals, and is sought after as a speaker on topics ranging from the links between lifestyle choices and disease, nutrition and cancer, and animal ethics. His television appearances include “Ask the Vet” segments on local news programs. He is the author of The Dog Cancer Survival Guide: Full Spectrum Treatments to Optimize Your Dog’s Life Quality and Longevity. He is a member of the American Veterinary Medical Association, the Hawaii Veterinary Medical Association, the American Association of Avian Veterinarians, the National Animal Supplement Council and CORE (Comparative Orthopedic Research Evaluation). He is also an advisory board member for Pacific Primate Sanctuary.
Updated: December 20th, 2018
Chalk up a win for the Animal Medical Center and Memorial Sloan Kettering. These two medical facilities have teamed up with Merial, one of the major companies producing drugs for dogs.
They came up with a winner: a vaccination for dogs that have malignant melanoma, a type of cancer of the skin or mouth.
This is not a vaccine that is used to protect from cancer. The word vaccine is a bit vague, because in common use this is something that is given in order to protect from a disease.
This vaccine is used only after a dog is diagnosed with melanoma.
Melanoma in dogs has different grades (some are more aggressive than others) and different stages (some have spread farther than others).
The usual stats are pretty dismal for the high grade melanomas, especially of the mouth or on the toes. Even with standard conventional care, these have a median survival of 2-4 months at worst, and about 5 months or so at best (remember, not every dog follows these stats).
The nice thing about this melanoma vaccine is that it has been shown to triple survival times. Not too shabby!
The vaccination just got conditional approval by the USDA last May and may be available through an veterinary oncologist near you.
Best to all,
Dr D
Dr. Demian Dressler is internationally recognized as “the dog cancer vet” because of his innovations in the field of dog cancer management, and the popularity of his blog here at Dog Cancer Blog. The owner of South Shore Veterinary Care, a full-service veterinary hospital in Maui, Hawaii, Dr. Dressler studied Animal Physiology and received a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of California at Davis before earning his Doctorate in Veterinary Medicine from Cornell University. After practicing at Killewald Animal Hospital in Amherst, New York, he returned to his home state, Hawaii, to practice at the East Honolulu Pet Hospital before heading home to Maui to open his own hospital. Dr. Dressler consults both dog lovers and veterinary professionals, and is sought after as a speaker on topics ranging from the links between lifestyle choices and disease, nutrition and cancer, and animal ethics. His television appearances include “Ask the Vet” segments on local news programs. He is the author of The Dog Cancer Survival Guide: Full Spectrum Treatments to Optimize Your Dog’s Life Quality and Longevity. He is a member of the American Veterinary Medical Association, the Hawaii Veterinary Medical Association, the American Association of Avian Veterinarians, the National Animal Supplement Council and CORE (Comparative Orthopedic Research Evaluation). He is also an advisory board member for Pacific Primate Sanctuary.
UPDATE FROM ABOVE COMMENT: DOG DEATH DUE TO THIS ORAL MELANOMA VACCINE: TWO BOARD CERTIFIED ONCOLOGISTS AND TWO BOARD CERTIFIED INTERNISTS STATED THE ORAL MELANOMA VACCINE CAUSED SEVERE IMMUNE REACTION AND DEATH IN OUR DOG. BE ON ALERT! ANY REACTION, INCLUDING “MILD” REACTIONS NEED TO BE REPORTED TO THE VET. A FOLLOW ON VACCINE SHOT SHOULD NOT BE GIVEN AFTER INITIAL ADVERSE REACTION. OUR DOG DIED ON 16 FEBRUARY 2012. COST TO TRY TO SAVE HER: $20k. And we are heartbroken.
My Puggle died from an immune reaction to this oral melanoma vaccine. She was sick (Malaise, lethargy) for 4 days after the first vaccine. She was sick for a full 8 days after the second vaccine and we were not going to give a third vaccine shot due to this. She had a severe reaction about 9 days after the second shot with red circles around her belly. We rushed her to the Specialty Vet ER where she was in serious condition. Her immune system was attacking her bone marrow and had stopped all platelets from being released. Her red blood cell count dropped and she was given three blood transfers, plus a canine med to boos her platelet count (didn’t work) and then a human medication to again try to boost her platelet count. The human med helped but the dog either bled into her lungs or threw a clot and was dead. She was fighting to survive and the two Vet Specialty Oncologists and Internists (Board Certified) all stated that this oral melanoma vaccine was the cause of her immune reaction and death. Her treatment to try to save her from the vaccine reaction is around $20k. Vets MUST alert owners to the fact that this vaccine like all vaccines may cause reactions and to be on guard for any changes including lethargy. Merial will be alerted to this death but I expect they will NOT include it within their data or change their “NO SIDE EFFECTS” marketing sentence. Be on guard that at least one dog has died from this oral melanoma vaccine and four board certified vets are aware of this.
Dear Darah
I am very saddened to hear this news. I am sorry.
This is an important event for dog guardians to know about.
I will keep my eyes open for more of the same information and see if this is a repeating event.
Best
Dr D
I don’t mean to rain on the dog oral vaccine but a few things must be noted and watched for with this vaccine.
Our puggle had an oral melanoma removed, radiation along margins and in lymph even though 7 biopsies did not reveal cancer in those specimens. She was given her first oral melanoma on day on of the five day radiation period. For the next four days she looked and acted like a sick dog with lethargy and the typical sick look in her eyes. I called Merial to get info and was told again that she may have a low grade fever but no other side effects. They took my info and their vets contacted my oncologogist vet. Their vets told my vet that indeed, some dogs do react in the same manner as my dog for about three days. Two weeks later, she was given her second oral melanoma vaccine and was sick for over a week and still not normal a day away from her third shot. I contacted our oncologogist vet and he found this unusual. We debated giving her the third vaccine. The day before she was to have her third vaccine I caught her licking her girl parts that had just been treated with proper meds for a UTI. every time I saw her lift her legs to lick I tan over to see which part of her lower area she was licking. I emptied anal glands and that was not the problem. About one hour after grabbing her legs and seeing where she was licking I was shocked to see large round red areas on her belly. Off to local ER vet who realized we needed to make the long trip to the specialty vet hospital where she had her oral surgery, radiation and first two vaccinations.
Her blood work showed that her platlets were dangerously low, but RBC was acceptable. Vets determined that her immune system was killing off the platlets and she was put on large amounts of IV steroids to try to get her body from continuing to destroy platlets. By the next day in the ER vet hospital, the red marks had enlarged, spread further up, down, out and into her eye. The oncologogist vet and I, the observant layperson dog mother, believe that this oral melanoma vaccine may have caused this intense, fast moving immune reaction. She is still at the hospital on two different steroids and her condition is guarded. My husband and I are bracing for the phone call that she did not survive.
Although there is no hard core proof that this oral melanoma may have caused this immune system reaction, both the oncologogist vet and my husband and I do believe this vaccine (possibly adjuvents) is in fact responsible for this aggressive immune reaction. The vet did say that it would not be unlikely to see such an immune response after a vaccine, but he was not clear if he meant this particular vaccine.
So, although this dog oral melanoma vaccine may be a god send for some dogs I feel I must alert others to watch their dog’s response very carefully after this vaccine as my husband and I did. Alert your oncologogist vet about any reaction and be on guard.
Remember: each dog and cancer is unique and will respond in their own ways. Please note that my dog may die shortly due to this intense platlet destroying immune response. She is in guarded condition and the hope is that the two steroids will stop the body from attacking platlets. But we won’t know that for many weeks IF she survives this serious episode. We love this dog as a human child and our hearts will be broken when she passes. We were told that this was NOT a magic bullet vaccine but that it had no side effects save low grade fever. That was not the case as the Merial vets admitted to my oncologogist vet. We were told that no dog deaths have been reported but that claim would be hard to refute as you do not know what else was going on in the dogs body pre vaccination. This dog’s bloodwork was fine. CT showed no cancer in internal organs and in fact the organs looked quite good for a 13 year old dog who had undergone surgery, radiation and medications. She was actually in good shape and quite possibly we should not have given her this vaccine. However, marketing reports showed longer survival times with surgery, radiation, and this vaccine so of course we would do all three plus other immune enhancing treatments, cancer diet change, etc. Those are marketing reports without enough real world data reporting yet.
Bottom line is to watch your dog super carefully after this vaccine for ANY reactions at all. This is a new vaccine and Merial does not have enough reported data on this vaccine. Beware and be on guard with this vaccine, other vaccines and of course, any medications and treatments. The obvious blanket statement.
Thank you.
Hi Dr Dressler,
My 16 year old cocker spaniel was diagnosed with oral melanoma 4 months back and we removed the 2cm lump from her gums, immediately put her through the initial 4 oncept vaccines and did everything recommended in your cancer guide plus apocaps.
She’s been well and a week back when I brought her back to the vet, another smaller lump near the original site was discovered and we immediately debulk it too.
Q1) I am wondering since there is a new lump whether I should do the whole initial 4 vaccines every 2 weeks again (making it 8 initial 2 weekly vaccines) and then only follow up with her 6 monthly booster?
Q2) As I do not want to put her through chemo, would you recommend that her 6 monthly booster in the future to be a 3 monthly booster? Reason is cancers mutate and I want to wipe it out from her system ASAP as much as possible to increase her survival time.
Q3) What is the reason for there to be a fixed recommended 4 intial 2 weekly oncept vaccine and then a 6 monthly maintenance booster? Can we chande the schedule to be more aggressive in out treatment protocol?
Q4) Also I have a rottie with osteosarcoma and is putting her on 9 apocaps a day with piroxicam. Is that ok? Her cancer cannot be removed and it has spread to her lungs. Is there anything I can do to slow the spread or control the growth at her lungs? It is critical now.
Hope to hear from you soon.
Best Wishes,
Cheryl
My rott/dob diagnosed with malignant melonoma on upper jaw saw oncologist suggested ct scan, surgery, maybe radiation if roots, or a new study to shrink tumor, dillon is 11.5 yrs old male. waiting for ct scan to do monday. jan 16. We would like to try the new vaccine without surgery, has anyone tried without surgery first? Our vet used laser on the sites that was the only treatment, looks like it is growing back already. We are at a loss and need advice from anyone out there with a similiar situation. the study would not allow the new vaccine to be used.
P.s. to robin, your situation sounds similiar to ours. I am sorry to hear about your loss.
Dear Debbie, it seems there may be a survival benefit to the vaccine without surgery or radiation. It does not seem to shrink the tumors however, yet the median survival in dogs with advanced and spread cancer (that could not be removed) was over a year..so that is better than otherwise.
Of course you will want to use as many tools as possible as discussed in the Guide…
Best
Dr D
My golden retriever was diagnosed with melanoma just before his 10th birthday. He had a lump on his gum which we had removed. After considering surgery, radiation and the vaccine, we decided to go with the vaccine alone. He had the full round of vaccines and after two years, the cancer vet said he could be considered to be in full remission. He recommended booster shots, but we opted to stop treatment at the time. He was recently euthanized at 13 years 4 months due to conditions my regular vet said were simply due to old age. There was no evidence of reoccurance of melanoma. It won’t work for every dog, but I had an extra three plus years with my beloved dog due to the vaccine.
Our 13 year old German shorthair, who suffers from spinal stenosis with resulting neurologic deficits, developed MM in the posterior buccal area which at time of discovery was necrotic and bloody. Our vet removed it en bloc which didn’t phase the dog, but now we are faced with the prospects of more surgery, RT and CT. What would be your advice for a dog so close to the end of life?
Dear Dr. Pomerance
A relevant post to read which should answer this question:
httpd://www.dogcancerblog.com/blog/but-cancer-treatment-at-my-dogs-age/
keep me posted on your thoughts
Best
D
My wife and I feel as though we were cheated. We had to put our golden retriever “Gracie” down just 3 days ago. She had malignant melanoma of the skin. It first showed its horrible, ugly face as a tumor on her toe. After amputating her toe, we took her to MSU in Lansing, MI. They decided that the melanoma vaccine would be best for her. I beg to differ that now, because once Gracie was diagnosed with melanoma, on July 8th, she was given 3 of the initial 4 melanoma vaccine injections and her condition worsened rapidly! So many more mass lumps keep popping up all over her body. She developed a tumor on her back knee bone…which she would not walk on. She became so short of breathe and just stopped eating for the final 2 days we had her. We were told that the melanoma vaccine had a better survival rate them chemo….within 7 weeks of her initial diagnosis…we had to do a dog lovers worst nightmare, we had to put our sweet, loving, affectionate, caring 4 year old golen retriever down…and she was just barely 4 years old, her birthday is July 16. I just wish we were told that she didn’t have much time left, because I wouldn’t of put her through all the melanoma vaccine injections and surgeries…knowing how rapidly it spread after the vaccines where administered. Gracie didn’t deserve that. Your forever in our hearts Gracie…”our sweet baby dirl” as Mommy would call you.
Dear Bryan,
sending you my thoughts during this difficult time of departures. So sorry you and Gracie had to go through this.
Best
D
Apollo was diagnosed in sept 2010 and with surgery to remove tumor given 3-6 m. No “vaccine” but another surgery later, he is still with us and doing fairly well for a 12 year old doggie. I haven’t researched this site but please, don’t buy in to miracle cures. Life cycles are what they are; we just give Apollo the best quality of life we can and are thankful for the 12 + years we have enjoyed with him!
Dr Dressler,
My oncology said that the vaccine won’t work on Raider. I did not ask why.
Is it OK to try graviola along with your Apocaps? Do you think graviola has the same effect like Neoplasene (make hole)?. Is it worth to try?
Do you have any blog about Graviola? I’ve heard about using graviola in human cases from the boiled leaf in Indonesia, which have a “burning feeling/sensation” of the effected areas, but indeed make the cancer disappear. Then I searched on the net, and not so many cases found in dog. Here is one of the blog that seems work in a dog.
http://www.cancercompass.com/message-board/message/all,17411,1.htm
http://www.theinternetpetvet.com/233/
Dear Nancy,
I hesitate to use this for dogs with cancer- see this link:
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/mds.20632/abstract;jsessionid=382E758C6B55C0C767C23CF3DBFBBC6F.d02t04
I would stick with the reviewed supplements in the Guide – you already know about apocaps, but you would want to add it immune support, fatty acids, modified citrus pectin, artemesinin, etc.. use under veterinary supervision. We need to understand we are trying to increase life quality and life expectancy, and these may help, at least to some extent. Don’t forget to use veterinary supervision-
Best
D
Hi Dr Dressler,
Our 10.5 year old golden girl was diagnosed with melanoma back in February. She had her 3rd eyelid removed and has since gone through 4 chemotherapy (carboplatin) sessions. Unfortunately, on her 4th chemo session, they found her lymph nodes to be enlarged. A biopsy revealed that there was melanin present. An xray and scan of her vital organs showed that they are all clear so far. The treatment protocol now has been shifted to another series of chemotherapy, this time with Dtic, followed by the melanoma vaccine. Throughout all these,
she has maintained the same energy and love for life, bounces back from each chemo session and surgery, has a great appetite and loves her exercise. She gets home cooked foods with higher protein content and complex carbs like brown rice or quinoa. And we supplement that with salmon oil and a multivit powder that was recommended by the nutritionist.
My worry is that melanoma is known to be resistant to chemotherapy, so should we be going straight to the vaccine without wasting more time and money on chemotherapy? And should we be supplementing her diet with anything else? They are saying our girl probably has less than 6 months to go.
Dear Shel,
it seems you would be well served to educate yourself on what else you can be doing, which was the purpose of the Guide.
One of the first things we discuss in the Guide is getting the data you need and answering the proper questions.
Here is one of these questions to ask your oncologist:
What would you guess is the gained life expectancy comparing melanoma vaccine+chemotherapy with vaccine alone?
As to supplements, yes, i would consider (under veterinary supervision) apoptogens, immune support, and flax lignans to start.
Hope this helps
Best
D