Experimental treatment makes dog’s 11 cancerous tumours “disappear”
Beloved rottweiler Griffin was given just three months to live after being diagnosed with a rare type of cancer. However, thanks to an experimental treatment in Queensland, he is still living years later after taking part in a clinical trial.
His owner, Adam Johnson, noticed a lump in the back of Griffin’s neck in 2017.
"I thought we'd take him for a routine check," Mr Johnson said to the ABC.
"It didn't seem like anything untoward, I just thought it would be medication and 'he'll be right' sort of thing.
"A few days later we found out it was a cancerous lump.
"It was devastating, absolutely devastating right before Christmas."
Griffin the rottweiler was diagnosed with T-cell lymphoma and given three months to live.
University of Queensland PhD candidate and veterinarian Dr Annika Oska said that the type of cancer Griffin was diagnosed with is usually a death sentence for dogs.
"He had a really big lump taken off his side but by the time he went back to have his stitches removed from the original surgery, he had another three lumps, so they were growing really quickly," Dr Oksa said.
Instead of going with the traditional route of chemotherapy, Dr Oska had another idea and enrolled Griffin in a medical trial that used immunotherapy treatment. This treatment is designed to “wake up” the dogs own immune system so the body recognises a foreign cancer.
"With this one [trial] we make it specifically from the dog's own tumour," Dr Oksa said.
"So it's very, very personalised and then we hope that the dog's own immune system will recognise the cancer and start fighting it."
His owner was surprised at the results.
"One by one, the cancerous lesions began to disappear to the point where two years on we've still got him here," Mr Johnson said.
"At that point in time it felt like a Hail Mary.”
Dr Oska said that researchers were encouraged by the results and that it could eventually be expanded into human trials for similar cancers.
"We're hoping that this will be a way forward to include in the treatment protocol for these dogs.
"We need to have more dogs in the trials obviously, so we have more evidence.
"So at the same time we're researching what happens to the tumours, how do they respond to the vaccine — can we make any changes to it? Or combine it with different treatments."
Photo credits: ABC