http://www.scienceblog.com/community/older/2003/F/20033949.html

I am sharing this article above because I found it interesting. Well, not only that, but because this new cancer vaccine has a greater meaning to me…..it actually saved my dog “Big Ed”!  Could it actually helps humans one day too?

Let me tell you Ed’s story…

One day I happened to glance over at my 10 year old, 130 lb, rescued Rottweiler Ed, and noticed something in his cheek as he was panting. Upon further inspection, I noticed it was a growth of some sort. Because I am a worry wort, I called the vet and immediately brought him in to be checked out. The vet said it needed to be biopsied and we scheduled him within a few days to have it taken out and examined. All went well with it being removed, except for the fact that there were actually two of them in his mouth and both were taken out…..which meant to me…double the worry. Now the next step was waiting for the results.

Within a couple of days we heard back from the vet…sad news, Ed had cancer! After the realization sank in, we were determined to do everything we could for him as long as he was happy and ‘remained a dog’. We did not want him to suffer, but we wanted to explore every option for him. We got an appointment right away at a wonderful Oncology Vet here in Fairfield, CT.

After he had a chest x-ray, which came back clean thank goodness, and a lymph node biopsy, which also came back clean, we went over the options with the vet. We opted to go with this new cancer vaccine first. While very pricey, we felt the cancer was caught early and this was the most non-invasive form of treatment to begin with. First, however, the margins of the tumor removed were not large enough and Ed did have to go back in to our nrmal vet to have a little more of his cheek removed to make sure all of the unhealthy tissue/cells were gone. It was another quick procedure that healed nicely.

The cancer vaccine shots we chose to use were a series of 4 bi-weekly injections that were given via a needle-less delivery device…kind of like an air gun…it was shot through the pores of his skin. Every other week we took the 1.5 hour ride up to visit the special oncologist for this procedure and would trek back home hoping it was working. Ed didn’t seem to mind, and was just excited to go for rides in the car….oh, and he also loved the cheese that the oncologist gave him for his cooperation and best behavior

From what I understood, the cancer vaccine was actually made from actual melanoma cells in a lab that were treated so they could not divide and cause more tumors. This vaccine when given to the dog, makes his system build a resistance to the cells in the hopes that his body could fight any remaining cancer cells and help to not produce more.  They say there are no side effects to the dog, but we did notice that each time he got his shot, he would be mopey for a day….but then quickly back to normal. 

Through the series of shots, we all crossed our fingers and hoped for the best. Several months after the final shot, Ed has been checked over by the vet and also had another chest x-ray done to make sure no cancer was in the lungs…..and he has gotten a clean bill of health!!! No more growths in the mouth and he is his chipper, hyper, big-lug self! How Amazing!! We could not have hoped for a better outcome and hope he has licked the cancer for good. Regular exams with our vet will keep us on top of things and if anything does ever come back, we are hoping to catch it as early as the first time…but hopefully there will be no more.

What an amazing thing science is! To the person or persons that came up with this vaccine, I personally thank you! And I do hope that in the future, soon, we have something like this that works for humans too! I know there will be a day……

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 9th, 2009 at 12:57 pm and is filed under Pet Healthcare.You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.