FDA approves drug to treat cancer in dogs

The Food and Drug Administration approved a new cancer treatment for dogs. The treatment is a pill called Palladia. The drug cuts off the blood to cancerous tumors and helps prevent more tumors from forming on a dog.

"There is no guarantee that there is going to be like a slam dunk situation," said Dr. Greg Biehle an Austin veterinarian. "In research, they have had over a 37 percent success rate which is really nice."

Palladia will be sold in early 2010, but the drug will be available at certain veterinary oncology specialists soon.

This is the first drug that is specific for dogs with cancer. The other cancer fighting treatments for dogs were derivatives of human drugs.

This cancer drug approval for dogs is an important step forward for veterinary medicine, said Dr. Bernadette Dunham, director of the FDA's Center for Veterinary Medicine. 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.

The FDA said Palladia (toceranib phosphate) has been approved to treat canine cutaneous mast cell tumors, a type of cancer responsible for about 1 of 5 cases of canine skin tumors.

All cancer drugs currently used in veterinary medicine originally were developed for use in humans and are not approved for use in animals, the federal agency said. Cancer treatments used in animals are used in an extra-label manner as allowed by the Animal Medicinal Drug Use Clarification Act of 1994.

Palladia is manufactured by Pfizer Animal Health Inc.

Sources: FoxNewsAustin and FDA