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Dog and Cat

Current Clinical Trials


What exactly are Clinical Trials?

Veterinary Cancer Group is very excited and proud to be able to offer cutting edge clinical trials for our patients and their families. These trials are very important in the discovery of new treatment options and the progression of cancer treatments.

Clinical trials have many different goals and structures. Most represent alternatives to the current standard of care. Some clinical trials are fully funded with the exception of the first visit, others have partial funding, still others have no funding at all.

During your initial appointment, your pet's oncologist will discuss the behavior of your dog or cat's specific type of cancer along with available treatment options. This consultation is very important for you to gain the information you need to decide what treatment option is best for your family and pet. Standard of care treatments, which may be a specific chemotherapy protocol, surgery or radiation therapy, will be discussed. These recommendations are based on what has the most success in current veterinary research and clinical experience. If a clinical trial is available and your pet appears to be a candidate, these trials will be discussed also. The initial consultation is your time to learn about your pet's cancer and all your options.

There are three main types of clinical trials in veterinary medicine, just as there are in human treatments.

Phase one clinical trials aim to determine the safety of a new drug and determine the recommended dose. This type of trial is uncommon at Veterinary Cancer Group, but when one is conducted, it is often recommended when a pet's cancer has become resistant to established treatments or when their family is unable to undertake other treatment recommendations. Dogs or cats with many different cancer types and past treatments may be eligible to enroll in phase one trials. Phase one trials ask the questions "how does new cancer drug X affect dogs with cancer? What is the best dose or schedule?"

A phase two trial is more common. Trials of this type study how effective a drug is against a specific cancer. By this level of trial the safety, dose and schedule of a drug is known, as is early information of its success against certain cancers. Dogs or cats with a specific cancer type who meet the study criteria may be considered for a phase two trial. A phase two trial asks the question "how effective is drug X at treating cancer Y?" Because the drugs used in phase two trials are either new or have not been commonly used for the cancer type in question, current standards of care would still be recommended during your initial consultation. If however you and your oncologist decide to pursue a phase two clinical trial, the next step is to determine whether your pet qualifies. A phase two trial is often a very good treatment option if standard treatment is not pursued.

Phase three trials ask the question "is drug X better than the current standard treatment?" These trials are conducted after a product has shown effectiveness in phase two studies. In these trials, there are usually two or three treatment groups which are assigned randomly. One group receives the standard of care treatment- this is considered the control group. The control group is the one the new treatment is compared to. Sometimes the control group receives a placebo if no standard treatment exists. A second group receives the new treatment. Veterinary Cancer Group selects only trials where a placebo would not be denying dogs and cats  essential treatments or jeopardizing their quality of life. Phase three trials are generally very good treatment options for clients and their pets who wish to partake in a clinical study.

Here is a list of trials currently offered at Veterinary Cancer Group...

  • Fully funded clincial trial for Dogs with Solid Tumors: Initial phase of this trial closed.  New trial will be under way very soon.  Check this page frequently as updates will be posted here.

  • B cell lymphoma: Trial utilizing a novel, non-chemotherapeutic agent designed specifically for canine B cell lymphoma.  Agents of this nature have been used with success in people with lymphoma adjacent to chemotherapy and as a maintenance treatment. Aside from the initial consultation to determine eligibility, this trial is fully funded for naïve untreated lymphoma cases.  Click here for more information.

  • Osteosarcoma: Veterinary Cancer Group is actively enrolling dogs with OSA into a partially funded multi-institutional clinical trial.  Eligible patients will have undergone a limb amputation with histopathologic confirmation of osteosarcoma.  Carboplatin will be initiated within 14 days of surgery every 3 weeks for 4 treatments followed by randomization to either Palladia/Piroxicam/Cytoxan or Piroxicam/Cytoxan.
  • Transitional Cell Carcinoma:  This partially funded study aims to determine whether different non-steroidal anti-inflammatory agents have the same efficacy against transitional cell carcinoma.  Traditionally, piroxicam has been used; however, recent trials have shown other NSAIDs are also effective.  The goals of this trial are to determine if piroxicam, a non-selective NSAID, and firocoxib, a highly selective NSAID, have equal efficacy in a controlled setting, and also to help establish the mechanisms through which NSAIDs work in cancer therapy.  Both offices are recruiting dogs with bladder masses for this study.  Dogs will receive piroxicam or firocoxib in combination with mitoxantrone chemotherapy, consistent with current standards of care.
  • Obstructive Transitional Cell Carcinoma: This study is designed to alleviate urinary obstruction by utilizing palliative radiation therapy (five consecutive daily doses of radiation Monday through Friday), a urinary catheter, chemotherapy and piroxicam.  Initial results have showed a 100 percent success rate at unblocking urinary obstruction in dogs with urinary transitional cell carcinoma.
  • OSA in Greyhounds: The Veterinary Cancer Group is working together with the Greyhound Health and Wellness Program at The Ohio State University in order to determine if there is a genetic correlation among retired racing greyhounds that develop OSA.  Five doses of chemotherapy agent will be provided free of charge to qualified greyhounds in exchange for a small blood sample.
  • Brain Tumors: This study is designed to deliver two treatments of hypo-fractionated radiation therapy to dogs and cats with brain tumors in a modified radiosurgical Linear Accelerator based approach. Animals will be set up in a Z-plate positioning device during initial planning CT scan and a three dimensional computerized radiation arc beam therapy treatment plan will be generated. Animals then receive two fractions of radiation given two days apart. Goal of the study is to evaluate the effects of a modified radiosurgical and potentially palliative approach for brain tumor patients who are not candidates for standard definitive radiation therapy.
  • Canine Nasal Carcinoma:  Partially funded, multi-institutional clinical study offered via affiliation with the Veterinary Radiation Therapy Oncology Group. Objective is to identify the activity of Toceranib (Palladia), a tyrosine kinase inhibitor, used alone or as a radiation sensitizing agent in treatment of canine nasal carcinomas. Recently, the presence of target receptors for toceranib have been identified in canine nasal carcinomas and this non-randomized clinical study will examine the drug's efficacy  either alone or in combination with radiotherapy using a 4.2 Gy x 10 daily fractionation schedule.
Non-Cancer Related Radiation Therapy Study:
  • Osteoarthritis:  This Veterinary Cancer Group and Advanced Critical Care of Los Angeles partially funded prospective study is designed to investigate the palliative effects of external beam low dose radiation therapy for dogs with refractory osteoarthritis. Human trials have demonstrated long term pain relief and functional gain in 50-75% of patients treated; animal models have shown significant reduction of inflammation and joint effusion in affected radiated joints. Dogs enrolled will receive three doses of radiation, lower than would be of concern for any side effects, on three consecutive days and be followed for 1 year after completion of radiation. Initial and follow up orthopedic exams performed by a board certified surgeon. Eligible candidates must have orthogonal radiographic views of the joint, CBC and chemistry profile, and Urine test at their family veterinarian. Concurrent NSAIDs or steroid usage do not disqualify enrollment. Click here for a Fact Sheet for the Osteoarthritis Study. (Addendum: To date, we have currently enrolled two refractory arthritis patients and results appear promising... Both patients have had a significant improvement in both their functionality and pain level and continue to maintain their response.  Side effects have not been observed from the radiation given the small doses used for the study. Room for 18 more patients to be enrolled in this partially funded prospective study.)

Please call the Veterinary Cancer Group location nearest you for more information about any of these trials or to make an appointment with one of our oncologists.