Penn Veterinary Medicine | University of Pennsylvania

 

A Novel Treatment for Canine Lymphoma:

We are currently evaluating the use of NBD Peptide as an Adjunct Therapy for the Treatment of canine Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma

 

Lymphoma is a cancer of white blood cells that occurs commonly in dogs. Chemotherapy is used to treat lymphoma and about 85% of dogs respond well to this treatment. However, the majority of dogs will relapse with clinical disease within one year of diagnosis and treatment. One reason dogs fail to respond to chemotherapy and why their cancer recurs after treatment is that drug resistant lymphoma cells exist in the body that are not killed by chemotherapy. Researchers at Penn Vet have identified an aberrantly active, intracellular pathway within lymphoma cells that promotes cancer cell survival and proliferation. Results of our pilot clinical trial have shown that blocking this pathway using a drug known as NBD peptide can promote death of malignant cancer cells in dogs (NEMO-binding domain peptide inhibits constitutive NF-k B activity and reduces tumor burden in a canine model of relapsed, refractory diffuse large B-cell lymphoma Clin Cancer Res. 2011 Jul 15;17(14):4661-71).

This clinical trial expands on our previous pilot study and aims to determine whether NBD peptide can 

• inhibit aberrant pathway activity and kill cancer cells in dogs with B-cell lymphoma
• improve short and long term outcomes in dogs with lymphoma

 

 

Inclusion Criteria

 

Your dog is eligible to participate in this clinical trial if:

• he/she has just been diagnosed with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma or has recently relapsed with diffuse large B cell lymphoma
• he/she is otherwise healthy with no major organ disease
• he/she has evidence of an active NF-kappaB pathway within their malignant lymph node (to be determined at screening visit)

 

Exclusion Criteria

 

Your dog is NOT eligible to participate in this study if :

• he/she has received chemotherapy in the last 3 weeks
• he/she has received prednisone or other systemic steroids in the last 3 days
• he/she has T cell lymphoma
• he/she does not have constitutively active NF-kappaB activity in their malignant lymph node

   if he/she is systemically unwell

Benefits:

• There is no fee to participate in this study. All study procedures (including blood work and lymphoma immunophenotyping) plus study medication (NBD peptide and antibiotics) will be provided at no cost.
• Dogs eligible to receive the NBD peptide will also receive a single dose of standard chemotherapy at no cost to the owner
• The potential benefits could include increased responsiveness to chemotherapy leading to remission and prolonged remission times in patients receiving the NBD peptide

 

For more information on this or other studies, please contact the Dr. Nicola Mason at 215-898-3996 or nmason@vet.upenn.edu