A retrospective analysis of the efficacy of Oncept vaccine for the adjunct treatment of canine oral malignant melanoma

Abstract

Oral malignant melanoma (OMM) in the dog is often locally aggressive with a high metastatic potential and there are few treatment options that have been demonstrated to improve outcome of this disease. The purpose of this study was to determine whether adjunctive treatment with the Oncept melanoma vaccine affected the outcome of dogs with OMM that had achieved loco-regional cancer control. Medical records from 45 dogs that presented to the Animal Cancer and Imaging Center were reviewed, including 30 dogs with stage II and III disease. Dogs that received the vaccine did not achieve a greater progression-free survival, disease-free interval or median survival time than dogs that did not receive the vaccine.

Keywords: metastasis; oncology; pathology; small animal; small animal internal medicine; small/large animal.