A dog facing a daunting diagnosis had one last hope at UC Davis’ veterinary hospital to turn things around.
As CBS News reports, Lola, a Golden Retriever, was given a terminal cancer diagnosis with just a couple of months to live. At 9 years-old, Lola was diagnosed with an aggressive, terminal oral melanoma that had spread to her lungs. Lola’s family had prepared for palliative care – to keep her comfortable and say their goodbyes to the dog that was more of a family member than a pet.
But then they were offered a chance to enroll her in a groundbreaking clinical trial at UC Davis.
The Trial Treatment and Results
“For those particular diseases, once it spreads to the lung, there is very little we can try. Even chemotherapy or radiation therapy at that point, the median survival is usually around 60 days,” said Dr. Robert Rebhun, director of the Veterinary Center for Clinical Trials at UC Davis.
Rebhun decided to enroll Lola as one of ten dogs in his clinical trial study titled, “Intravenous Doxorubicin and Inhaled IL-15 Immunotherapy for Treatment of Lung Metastases.” The study was sponsored by the National Cancer Institute at the National Institutes of Health.
The trial involved inhaling IL-15, an immunotherapy drug that aims to activate a dog’s own cancer-fighting cells directly in the lungs. “That stimulates the immune system to hopefully recognize the cancer,” Rebhun said.
Initially, the treatment didn’t seem effective, and there was even evidence of tumor growth, leading some researchers to believe Lola might have had to discontinue the trial. But the researchers later recognized what appeared to be pseudoprogression, where an initial increase in tumor size is actually a sign of the immune system responding. After some time, this “delayed response” to the therapy resulted in her tumors actually shrinking.
“The big surprise was a month or so after finishing that when we went to check the X-rays and realized everything was gone,” Rebhun said. “The interesting thing with Lola is because it seemed like things were getting worse, so she actually went on to get radiation therapy. That all occurred before we saw the response.”
Two years later, Lola is still fighting thanks to a clinical trial at UC Davis that is credited with saving her life. To this day, Lola is cancer-free and will turn 11 years old in October.
How Lola’s Story can Inform further Research
Researchers at UC Davis are working to study what worked and, as part of their trial research, are hoping to uncover how they can make more patients successful, like Lola.
Dr. Rebhun has been working through multiple rounds of clinical trials for several years to understand canine cancer better and help find reliable treatments. The studies impact not only animals, but are also in collaboration with the UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center for human health, too.
“What we found was that when we did this inhaled treatment, a subset of the dogs did respond quite well, but the majority of the dogs did not. So, the subsequent trials have really attempted to see if we can improve on the number of dogs that respond or figure out which dogs will respond and why,” Rebhun said.
“So what we are trying to figure out is what makes Lola different, what makes her part of that 10% that responded. If we can understand why we are seeing that response, hopefully we can either, one, predict the dogs that will respond, or two, adjust other things,” Rebhun said.
For Lola’s family, each trip to UC Davis’ veterinary hospital for her cancer check-ups comes with a mixture of hope and anxiety. “I try to not let a day go by that I’m not in awe of what UC Davis and the science was able to do for her,” said Allison Roth, Lola’s owner. Dr. Michael Kent, Lola’s veterinarian, regularly checks Lola for any physical signs of the return of cancerous tumors in her mouth as well as taking X-rays of Lola’s lungs. To date, there is no sign of the cancer’s return.
Lola will also continue to receive regular checkups every few months at UC Davis Veterinary Hospital. By now, her family knows most of the staff by name. “We are so grateful,” said Allison. “Whenever I reflect on her story, I’m always in a state of awe, the shock again of it.”
The golden girl is shining a new light on the future of cancer care.
Rebhun said the clinical trial Lola participated in has wrapped up, and the team of researchers is working to publish their findings now. “We get super excited, but we also remember there’s nine other dogs in this study that weren’t Lola. It motivates us to keep going,” Rebhun said.
It’s step one in one day perfecting cancer treatment and making it available to not just all animals, but humans, too. “We have a lot more long-term successes now. That’s why I do this. Because we can beat cancer,” said Dr. Kent.
Learn more about the trial and its findings on the UC Davis veterinary medicine website.
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