“This is a major leap forward for veterinary medicine,” said Dr. William Li, President and Medical Director of the Angiogenesis Foundation. “Eighty percent of dog cancers are identical to their human counterparts, so it makes complete sense that the antiangiogenic treatment approach that works in human cancers would also help dogs.”
The Angiogenesis Foundation pioneered the first use of antiangiogenic therapies in canine cancers in 2000. Foundation researchers, working with veterinarians, developed a cocktail of human drugs suitable for dogs. Named the ‘Navy Protocol’ after a Golden Retriever that first received the treatment, the cocktail has been used to treat more than 600 dogs representing 32 breeds with 26 advanced tumor types. Since 1995, the Foundation has been educating veterinarians and pet owners about the principles of angiogenesis and its promise for conquering cancer in dogs and other animals.
"We have tested the tumor size with sonography. It does appear tumors get a little smaller with piroxicam," indicates Dr. Barton. "There may be some chemotherapeutic benefit, but we're not particularly impressed with tumor shrinkage." She explains that improvement may be due to reduced edema and reduced inflammation rather that true tumor reduction.
"We feel like piroxicam gives comparable results to those we get with cisplatin chemotherapy or radiation," say Barton. The advantage, Dr. Barton repeats, is: "the dogs feel good, and they get to stay at home. " Disadvantages Barton ascribes to the common cisplatin chemotherapy include severe nausea, vomiting and kidney toxicity. And with radiation treatment, dogs must be hospitalized four to five weeks for the 12 to 15 treatments, according to Barton.
Purdue also compared its piroxicam results to similar cases treated with cisplatin, the currently used chemotherapy in canine transitional cell carcinoma. The tumor response and survival date of the two drugs were similar, but the toxicity of piroxicam treatment was much less that that of cisplatin treatment, according to Purdue.
Piroxicam (Feldene) therapy is being used with good results in treatment of some canine malignancies. Recent suggested regimen: 0.3 mg/kg piroxicam every 48 hours. And give with Pepcid keep GI problems down *according to some vet texts. Talk to your vet about this. Meloxicam is newer and has less GI problems. These are human drugs too, so have your vet write the script for you to take to your pharmacy. It will be much cheaper. Vets make a HUGE markup on Rx.
