Nov 16, 2016, 2:15pm CST
from the Kansas City Business Journal
Elias Animal Health, an Olathe-based development company, is adding a fourth clinical trial site to test a new bone cancer treatment for dogs. This is key, as researchers face a limited pool of patients for osteosarcoma clinical trials in dogs.
Elias currently offers clinical trials through Kansas State University and the University of Missouri-Columbia, as well as a veterinary critical care facility in Bellingham, Wash. Soon, it will launch clinical trials at the Veterinary Specialty Hospital of San Diego, Calif., to test the safety and efficacy of Elias’ cancer immunotherapy treatment in dogs for newly-diagnosed appendicular osteosarcoma, or bone cancer of the leg. Clinicians will test the use of immunotherapy in conjunction with surgery against dogs treated with surgery alone.
“Early clinical study results already show positive outcomes,” Elias Animal Health CEO Tammie Wahaus said during a presentation at the Kansas City Area Life Science Institute’s Collaborate2Cure Series.
One of the patients, a 6-year old German Shorthaired Pointer, has survived one year after her osteosarcoma diagnosis; twice as long as the typical prognosis. In addition, at a recent follow-up visit lung radiographs showed no signs of metastasis. [emphasis added]
“Her results are consistent with the results achieved in other preclinical and clinical studies of this treatment platform,” Wahaus said.
At other sites, Elias Animal Health is testing the treatment’s efficacy for lymphoma and other cancers. It was first developed by Elias Animal Health’s parent company, TVAX Biomedical Inc., to treat brain and kidney tumors in humans. The treatment uses a vaccine with the patient’s cancer cells to generate an immune response, then uses white blood cells generated by that response to attack cancer cells.
Find the full article here.
