FDA Cancer drug approved for dogs!!
Canine cancer help is on the way!!!
I have written several entries about cancer in dogs and the lack of treatment that is often available. I had even mentioned the case of my dog, Ziggy and how how a tumor on his leg had metasisized and ultimately caused his death.
Well, the FDA has recently approved the first drug to be used to treat canine cancer. This is an amazing feat, because up until this point the only treatment for canine cancer was with drugs that had been tested and used on humans. Veterinarians are only allowed to use human treatments on dogs in very controlled situations, otherwise it violates federal law.
The new drug, called Palladia is manufactured by Pfzier Animal Health, Inc. It is to be used on the type of canine cancer that accounts for about one in five cases of canine skin tumors.
“This cancer drug approval for dogs is an important step forward for veterinary medicine,” as stated by Bernadette Dunham, who is the director of the FDA’s center for veterinary medicine. Dunham continued by saying the following, “Prior to this approval, veterinarians had to rely on human oncology drugs, without knowledge of how safe or effective they would be for dogs, Today’s approval offers dog owners, in consultation with their veterinarian, an option for treatment of their dog’s cancer.”
This is truly the beginning of something wonderful for dogs and their owners. Very often the treatments for canine cancer were rare or nonexistent. This offers promise and hope. Cancer in dogs is becoming more prevelant in dogs, just as it is in humans. In many cases, similar environmental factors contribute to the increase in these cases.
Let’s hope this is the beginning of more medications and treatments to help the pups we love.
June 11th, 2009 at 11:02 am
Amazing breakthrough, although I don’t live in America I guess it will have ahuge impact here too
You sure know a lot about dogs in general.
Sure to return more and more because I love this blog.