WSU marrow-transplant program offers improved option against canine lymphoma

Pullman, Wash. — In an effort to make canine bone-marrow transplants more commonplace for dogs, Washington State University's (WSU) College of Veterinary Medicine is preparing to open its own transplant center at its veterinary teaching hospital.

The new program will be the first of its kind at the university level, though Dr. Jeffrey Bryan, the veterinary oncologist at WSU who is leading the new program, says the technology has been around for some time. He and his colleagues believe that bringing it into the academic realm will advance the procedure and, in time, make it more safe and affordable.

"We've had quite a few phone calls already. I think there will be a great deal of interest, especially once more dogs are treated and there's more awareness," Bryan says. "We want to figure out how to make this as easy as possible for them."

Beneficiary of knowledge: Dogs often helped gauge how well bone-marrow transplants would work in humans. Now it's time for them to reap some of the benefits of their sacrifice, veterinary researchers say.

Bone-marrow transplants more than triple the positive results of other lymphoma treatments, Bryan says. While chemotherapy can extend a dog's life by about one year, successful bone-marrow transplants could increase it by about three years, with a better post-treatment quality of life, he says.

And for an animal that has long played guinea pig for the benefit of human bone-marrow transplants, Edmund Sullivan, DVM, says it's about time dogs started to reap the rewards of their sacrifice.

For more than 50 years, dogs assisted researchers at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle in perfecting bone-marrow transplant techniques. The dogs were used to gauge how well the procedure would work in humans, instead of how well a dog suffering from lymphoma could be treated, Bryan says.

"It's only fair that we now make this a treatment option for them, as well," Sullivan says.

Sullivan is widely credited for performing the first nonexperimental canine bone-marrow transplant at his Bellingham, Wash., clinic and says he worked closely with the Fred Hutchinson center to develop a technique that could work as a treatment, not an experiment, for dogs. The first transplant he performed was in 2004, and he has four cases being organized right now.

"We were the first ones to do this outside of the laboratory setting," Sullivan says. "But we wouldn't have any hope of doing it without the years of knowledge [the Fred Hutchinson center] had generated and without the generosity of them sharing that knowledge with us."

Moving the needle

Sharing knowledge will be an important step in moving the procedure forward, too, Sullivan says.

"There's lots and lots of sick dogs," he says. "Veterinary institutions have the infrastructure for this. It should be advanced through an institution. I imagine that a handful of universities will start to provide these in the next two to four years. Kinks will get worked out. Then, specialty practices that already have the equipment will start to offer it."

Keys to a canine bone-marrow transplant

Who is doing what and when is less important than working to perfect the procedure, agrees Bryan.

"It doesn't matter necessarily that we be the first, we just want this technique to be available to dogs," says Bryan, adding that North Carolina State University's veterinary college is working on a similar program.

Not every practice can afford the equipment to complete the procedure anyway, but Jerry Post, DVM and executive director of the Veterinary Cancer Foundation, says some specialty practices already have the equipment. They could pick up on the procedure once universities perfect it, develop protocols and train new veterinarians on the technique, he says.

"Once Washington State University figures out the bugs, places like my own practice would probably be set up to do things like that," Post says.

Canine bone marrow transplants probably will remain in the academic realm for about a decade, Bryan estimates.

Transplants translated

Lymphoma is the most common form of cancer in dogs, affecting as many as 24 out of every 100,000.

Five to 7 percent of canine tumors are classified as lymphomas, which are the solid tumors formed after certain white blood cells transform into cancer cells and become tumors.

The key to whether dogs with lymphoma can be treated with a bone-marrow transplant depends on a series of factors, Bryan says.

They must have no evidence of cancer in their marrow or have a primary relative with matching genetics that is cancer-free and can act as a marrow donor.

The dogs also need to respond well to chemotherapy and be able to go into remission nicely, he says.

In addition, proper tests to identify all cancerous areas must be conducted before deciding if a dog is a good candidate for the procedure.

"It's very important that these dogs respond well to chemotherapy and that they be properly staged so we know where the cancer is," Bryan says.

Bone marrow transplants at Washington State are expected to cost about $15,000 to $20,000, depending on the size of the dog, compared to $1,000 to $10,000 for chemotherapy alone, Bryan says.

For more information or to refer a lymphoma case to the program, contact Washington State at (509) 335-0711.