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.
My 12 year old female cocker had oral melanoma- was staged -had surgery by board certifed vet- saw Oncologist who gave Merial vaccine and after two doses shd died. If fine needle spirates show reaction go for full biopsy to make certain -in our case she lasted less time than no treatment at all. We were not told the report said “reactive” because the vet tnink it may be due to infection of the tumor-in our case she was wrong -cells escaped to the lungs. Bad mistake.
My 13 year old female balck cocker was diaganosed with oral malanoma -board certified oncologist recommended surgery after staging and then Merial vaccine. She died after surgery and the second of four schedued injections of the vaccine. Prior to surgery she had one recactive node-vet started it could have been infection rather than cancer-wrong diagnoses- had I known of that I would not have put her through sugery- remember to ask for all reports and have answers to all questions before pursuing odds that are against the pet from the start.
Victoria,
I’m so sorry about your beloved Mitzi. My little Sadie also had a huge 3cm tumor on her jaw (stage III, very advanced and agressive). She’s a miniature daschound only 10 lbs, and therefore the tumor was really huge for her little mouth. She was in a lot of pain, couldn’t bark or eat. It had already spread throughout her jaw and mandibal, and also through her cheekbone all the way up to the very edge her eye socket.
I owe her survival to the brilliant Surgeon and the University of Wisconson Vetianarian Teaching School in Madison WI who removed her jaw, mandibal, and entire cheekbone with EXTREMELY narrow margins. He was obviously able to get clean margins. This surgeon and Professor of Vetinarian Medicone heads-up the entire entire surgical department at the University, Dr. McNaulghty. He performed her 5 hour surgery himself. The clinic’s head oncologist (Dr. Ruth Ann Chun) had us give her 4 treatments of mild radiation for 4 consecutive weeks on her mandibal in case there were some microscopic cancer cells remaining. The extra radiation treatment was a precaution and optional which I chose to do (highly recommended). Thereafter, she had a series of the Oncept Vaccine every other week for 8 weeks. She now gets a “Booster Shot” every 6 months. After 2 whole years, the oral melanoma has NOT come back, nor has it matasiticized elsewhere in her vital organs. Once again, my local vet told me that without any doubt she had only 2 weeks more weeks to live and said he could do nothing more for her. Thank God I followed my heart and instinct, and went that extra mile to take her to the University of WI.
Within 2 days after Sadie’s surgery she was TOTALLY back to normal, playing, eating like nothing had happened. Also, there were absolutely NO side-effects to her radiation treatment and/or Oncept Vaccines. Most importantly, she is NOT deformed or anything. You can barely tell that her jaw and checkbone were removed! Within a week she learned to eat and chew her wet dogfood only using the right side of her mouth. Her dogfood kept on squirting out of the left side of her mouth when she tried to eat cuz she had no jaw or cheekbone. It was halarious because she couldn’t figure out why it was happening. I had to follow her around and clean up an awful lot of dogfood all over the floor!
She’s now 13 years old, full of life, happy, and her normal self – a little “Trouble-Maker!” Once again, I truly feel that I owe her survival to the brilliant and talented surgeon/professor who performed what was incredibly challenging and almost impossible surgery on her, successfully acheiving extremely narrow but clean margins.
Victoria, I also sent you an email that you may want to read. Therefore, please check your INBOX. Do what your heart and instincts tell you to do. Time is extremely important at this stage of the game.
Maria
Hello, We just had a small growth taken off our 9 year old Doberman’s back. The biopsy came back today as malignant melanoma. We are seeing an Oncologist in two days. Zarya also has Dilated Cardiomyopathy. My Veterinarian told me about the melanoma vaccine but I don’t know the name of it. Since Zarya’s system is already compromised by the DCM I am trying to gather as much information as possible before her Oncology appt. on Thursday. I would appreciate any help or information you can give me. Right now Zarya has wonderful quality of life and has no idea she is sick. I would like to keep it that way. Quality of life is everything! I am the List Owner of a 1,000 member group on Yahoo called HealthDobes. Thank you! Louise
Louise,
Sorry for the delay. I have been away. By now I assume you have met with the oncologist and are underway with the vaccine. I would not anticipate any complications of the DCM with the vaccine. Good luck and keep us updated!
All my best, Dr Sue
Maria & Dr. E,
Could you tell me more about Sadie and her procedure? My dog, Mitzi, was diagnosed with oral melanoma back in Dec. It is now July, her tumor is VERY large and has invaded the bone and is now in the nasal cavity preventing her from breathing naturally through her nose (she has been breathing through her mouth mainly) and you can tell it is starting to spred up toward her eye 🙁 We have been doing a natural holistic approach, but I’ve had enough because it clearly isn’t working, out Holistic Vet won’t even see my dog anymore because she believes there is nothing we can do now. We were offered surgery as an option back in Dec and I decided against it because of financial reasons and I believed that we could fight it naturally. Seeing where we are now, I wish we would have done the surgery. Mitzi is such a fighter, she really shouldn’t be here but she keeps fighting every day and is the strongest most determined girl I know. She is a 9 yr old labradane. Please email me at Angelshortcake88@aol.com if you can provide any assistance or advice. Is it ever too late to do surgery? How much could they remove if it is already in the bones that effect her eye, the mandibal, and her cheek?
Victoria,
Sorry to hear about Mitzi’s struggles. Unfortunately some dogs are not candidate fir surgery when the tumor is too large and/or affecting the eye region. Conventional radiation may be helpful. Melanoma protocols are often weekly for 4 weeks, so not that may overall treatments. I cannot really comment more because I have not examined her and do not know what the tumor is affecting. A CT scan is best for that. I would encourage you to make an appointment with an oncologist who can examine her adn make more specific recommendations. Good luck!
All my best, Dr Sue
Hi, I followed the cancer guide. My rottie was doing great. I gave her the apocaps/k9 products. I also gave her the melanoma vaccine. My rottie had melanoma on the digit. She was 3. I removed parts of the digit twice. The first part was sent to the lab. Recomendation send remove the rest of the digit. It was done. Unfortunatley my vet did not send that to the lab. I started the melanoma vaccine,. I did nto give my dog radiation too and today I regret it. I wish vets would say this has to be done. I was told it was probably not needed because the lymphnodes where clean and the lungs where clean. Anyway after finishing the vaccine all was still clean. 1 month later all was clean. But 2 months later there where 2 tumours in the lungs. We started the vaccine again. 1 month later there where 6 more tumours. This was feb 2012. June 11,2012 my baby had a seizure. She had 2 in one day. I put her on seizure medicine but she had 6 more. I was suppose to give the seizure medicine twice a day. Well after calling emergency room a few times I was told to give the medicine after each seizure plus the 2 doses. By that time my baby was wreck. I did as they asked but she was so drugged. They told me that many seizures probably means the tumour went to the brain. They could not give her a mri or cat scan because they feared she could not handle the anesthesia. So I put my baby down. I wish I gave radiation with the vaccine. She loved Dr dressler diet and took the pills easily. I hope i made the right decision.
Kathleen,
I am so sorry for your loss and all you all went through. Hindsight is 20/20, so try not to second guess everything (I know that is hard). Radiation in general is recommended for digit melanomas if surgical margins are incomplete. The second surgery likely got clean margins. Unfortunately it sounds like the mets/spread was the issue, not the digit (which is what radiation would have focused on).
Try to focus on all the good times shared through the years! Again so sorry for your loss.
Dr Sue
Dear Kathleen
You did a very good job.
Here’s a little thing you might find useful:
http://www.dogcancer.tv/feeling-guilty-about-your-dogs-cancer/
http://www.dogcancer.tv/how-to-know-when-its-time-to-say-good-bye/
I hope these help
Best
Dr D
This message is for Trish and Grizz back on April 2012 they have a chow mix like my Kuma almost same situation as mine. I wanted to know how they are doing?? Kuma had the debulking twice and melanoma vaccines. The tumor has returned but I believe the vaccine and the strict diet plan thanks to Dr Dressler has kept the tumor controlled and so far has kept it from metastasis. He is now on antibiotics and chemo pills Leukeran. He still likes to go on walks:)
Dr. Ettinger,
Thanks for your kind wishes! I was blessed with a brilliant surgeon at the University of Wisconsin (Dr. McNaughty). He’s their head Professor of Surgery and runs their entire surgical department. He performed Sadie’s 5 hour surgery himself (jaw, mandibal, and cheek) and was apparently able to get extremely narrow but clean margins which seemed impossible to do so. This man, along with all the other doctors at the University, the Merial Oncept Vaccine, and GOD have blessed me with a true miracle and more happiness with my little miniature daschound Saide.
Question – In your medical opinion, does hitting the 2 year mark since her original diagnosis (date of surgery & first vaccine) mean that she’s been completely cured (cancer will never come back again), or just officially in Remission? What’s the medical definition of “Remission?”
Thanks,
Maria
Hi Maria,
Congrats on the 2 year anniversary!
Remission usually means no detectable cancer cells, and for melanoma it may mean normal chest X-rays or CT, normal abdominal ultrasound, but there may sadly be microscopic cells we do not detect with these tests. I am cautious with the cure word with melanoma, but cautious optimism is great! The cancer can still relapse – hopefully it won’t, so enjoy each and every day with Sadie – it is a gift!
All my best,
Dr Sue
Jaenie,
Thanks so much for your kind response. The vaccine really does work! My Sadie just had another check-up last week and she’s still cancer free. It’s now been OVER two years since she was diagnosed with advanced Stage III oral melanoma (over 3cm) which had spread throughout her jaw, mandibal, and entire cheekbone. As I mentioned, she was originally given only 2 – 4 weeks to live without the vaccine, and only 5 mos. to live with the vaccine. I strongly recommend that you also have the 4 radiation treatments along with the Oncept Vaccine as an extra precaution. I’m convinced that Sadie’s radiation treatments absolutely did play an important role ensuring that the cancer didn’t return. Please don’t be leary of any radiation side-effects or discomfort cuz it’s not like with human radiation treatments for cancer. My Sadie had NO negative side-effects whatsoever throughout her 4 treatments. I will say a prayer for your little dog. There definitely ARE miracles! Keep in touch and please let me know how things are going.
Best Wishes,
Maria
Thank you for your info, Maria. It’s so helpful to hear about others’ experiences with radiation. We started Meriel vaccine today and I am still considering radiation treatments – lucky to have a great vet oncologist who answers all my questions straightforwardly. I am very happy your dog is doing so well!!! Jaenie