Chief Medical Officer ELIAS Animal health Oakland, California, United States
Abstract: Background: There is growing evidence that combined chemo-immunotherapy improves outcomes for cancer patients. Combining the initial cytotoxic effect of chemotherapy with the immunological effects of adoptive cell therapy (ACT) aims to increase overall response and survival rates. Methods: This prospective clinical trial evaluated overall survival times of companion dogs (n=17) newly diagnosed with osteosarcoma (OSA) receiving 1-4 doses of carboplatin followed by ACT initiated 21 days following the final chemotherapy dose. After amputation, autologous cancer cell vaccinations were administered to generate neoantigen-specific T cells which were later harvested, ex vivo expanded/activated, and intravenously administered. Survival time, tumor location, and other demographic data were collected. A set of matching control dogs (n=17) were selected from a published dataset in the National Cancer Institute’s Canine Data Commons. Kaplan-Meier analysis was conducted with survival data compared to historical published results of dogs receiving chemotherapy only as therapy. Results: Dogs in ACT group had a median survival time (MST) of 486 days compared to 208 days for matched controls. One-year survival rates were 53% and 18%, respectively. No statistical difference was observed between groups (p > 0.2). Conclusion: The initial analysis of this study, dogs with OSA treated with ACT and chemotherapy showed improved outcomes compared to carboplatin alone and this therapeutic approach was well-tolerated. Clinical relevance was demonstrated through improved MST and 1-year survival rates. Results suggest chemo-immunotherapy may improve outcomes in canines with OSA. The translational impact of this research may have important implications for treatment of OSA in human medicine.
