Palladia:New Cancer Treatment for Dogs

Last week (sorry I’m a bit behind because of my trip)  Pfizer announced Palladia a new drug developed to treate cancer in dogs.  More specifically Palladia was designed to treat Mast Cell tumors, a potentially serious type of cancer that accounts for about 20 percent of canine skin tumors. Mast cell tumors can be very aggressive and spread to other parts of the body, including lymph nodes, if not treated.

Canine Cancer Drug

“This cancer drug approval for dogs is an important step forward for veterinary medicine,” Bernadette Dunham, director of FDA’s Center for Veterinary Medicine, said in a statement. “Prior to this approval, veterinarians had to rely on human oncology drugs without knowledge of how safe or effective they would be for dogs,” she said. Pfizer said it would begin selling Palladia in early 2010, but will make the oral drug available to certain veterinary oncology specialists prior to that.

Palladia works by killing tumor cells and by cutting off the blood supply to the tumor.The pill must be taken every other day and the dog will likely have to be on the therapy for several months or longer, depending on tumor response, Pfizer said.

Unfortunately, Pfizer declined to divulge the cost of the treatment or to forecast what annual Palladia sales might be. The world’s biggest drugmaker said it will likely announce the price of the drug sometime this summer. In clinical trials, some 60 percent of dogs treated with Palladia, known chemically as toceranib, had their tumors disappear, shrink or stop growing, Pfizer said.

Tucker

In spending time at The Veterinary Cancer Group I met many dogs being treated for mast cell tumors. One adorable Beagle named Murphy was going to need 20 radiation treatments for his mast cell tumor. Both Tucker, my dog from college and Rusty, my Dad’s dog had Mast Cell tumors, but each was caught early and we were able to have them removed and the cancer never returned

Murphy had to get 20 treatments because his tumor was in his groin region and doctors weren’t able to remove the tumor with large enough margins to be sure it didn’t spread. So for dogs like Murphy Palladia is welcome news!

Unfortunately Palladia wouln’t have helped my sweet Bella, but where there is one cancer drug for dogs I hope more cancer drugs will follow.

Rusty the Rottie

Pfizer Animal Health estimates 1.2 million new canine cancer cases are reported in the United States every year.

To find out more about canine cancer how you can protect your dog, check out the following links:

Land of Pure Gold Foundation

Nine Ways to Precent Canine Cancer

The Morris Animal Foundation

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FDA Confirms Probe of NUTRO Pet Food Deaths, Illnesses

This is some scary you know what. I know a lot of people who feed their dogs NUTRO….

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has confirmed that the agency is investigating NUTRO pet food, following a series of unexplained illnesses and deaths. Consumers have been complaining for more than two years that their pets have become ill after eating NUTRO products; many have recovered when they were switched to other foods. The company has steadfastly denied that its food is to blame.

What's in your bowl?

Until now, the FDA has been mum about whether it was actively investigating the company. Today, the FDA’s Division of Freedom of Information confirmed the agency has an ongoing investigation into NUTRO — and said that investigation could be criminal or civil in nature. The office did not elaborate on the nature or focus of that investigation.

The investigation came to light when the FDA denied a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request by ConsumerAffairs.com seeking a list of complaints and lab results the agency has collected regarding NUTRO pet food. The agency denied the request and said that releasing the information could hamper “prospective or ongoing” action by law enforcement.

Click Here to read full story on the Consumer Affairs website!

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