A Northern Ontario dog is undergoing some innovative cancer treatment.
Beau is a 10-year-old golden retriever who has an aggressive form of oral cancer.
He is having surgery in Espanola to remove part of his jaw bone and the cancerous tumor.
"That tumor is going to be shipped off to Tennessee (Wednesday) afternoon to the lab where they are going to take that tissue and use it to make a vaccine against that tumor," said PJ Rocheleau, a veterinarian.
The vaccine will then be sent back to Espanola to treat Beau.
Rocheleau said this is the first case in Canada for the use of the canine anti-cancer vaccine.
"What we are hoping is that vaccine is going to cause anti-bodies to develop against his tumor. This is a whole new branch of oncology called immunotherapy and what that means is that we are trying to use the immune system to fight cancer," Rocheleau said.
Beau's owner Josee Goulet said when she found out about the new form of treatment, she didn't hesitate.
"I was quite excited to hear about a vaccine that is created from the tumor from my dog that would fight the cancer. I thought 'how innovative'," she said.
The vet says the therapy is tailored to each canine patient.
"If we can get the immune system to target and clean up these cancer cells and basically kill them off, that allows us to deal very effectively in a targeted manner in individually tailored treatments to that animal’s own cancer," said Rocheleau.
Rocheleau said Beau will undergo his initial shot of the vaccine in about two weeks.
He will then receive two booster shots between 30 to 60 days later; as part of the ground-breaking treatment.
