Dr. Sheila Carrera-Justiz, right, and Lana Fagman, center, with a study participant.
An ongoing clinical research trial aimed at pet dogs suspected of having a terminal form of brain cancer known as malignant glioma is exploring the efficacy of a novel form of immunotherapy to treat dogs with the condition.
Sheila Carrera-Justiz, D.V.M., a clinical associate professor and veterinary neurology specialist at the UF College of Veterinary Medicine, is collaborating with pediatric oncologist Elias Sayour, M.D., Ph.D., a professor at UF’s College of Medicine, in his FDA-approved clinical trial to determine the efficacy of a new vaccine method developed in the Sayour lab.
The method has shown promise in preclinical research in mouse models, and the researchers hope that what is learned from the canine trial will ultimately benefit both dogs and people.
“Dogs in the study are living past the median survival time for the disease,” Carrera-Justiz said.
Sayour received a $2.5 million grant from the pediatric cancer foundation CureSearch for Children’s Cancer in 2020 to pursue these studies, the latest in a longtime pursuit of translational approaches to treating cancer in children.
Dogs offer a naturally occurring model for glioma because they are the only other species that develops spontaneous brain tumors with some frequency, with about 14 to 20 per 100,000 dogs acquiring brain tumors compared with an estimated 29.9 per 100,000 people, according to a study by researchers at Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine at Virginia Tech and Wake Forest University Comprehensive Cancer Center.
Carrera-Justiz said gliomas in dogs are universally terminal and dogs diagnosed with malignant glioma typically survive less than two months.
“There is no definitive treatment in canines,” she said. “There is no option for these dogs, and so any clinical trial is going to be really helpful and have potential to extend their life with a good quality of life. We showed in dogs that this vaccine is safe and effective. It doesn’t hurt. It stimulates the immune system, and they lived longer than expected.”
She added that she and Sayour are in the second phase of the study, evaluating the effects of a modified version of the vaccine.
“The positive responses we have seen so far, especially with a lack of significant side effects, is very promising for treatment of a catastrophic disease in dogs and cats,” Carrera-Justiz said.
