Dogs treated with DNA Gene Theraphy for Cancer

Developers of a new gene therapy that has helped dogs with cancer live longer say their discovery could potentially improve the quality of life of people with cancer as well.

The single treatment works by increasing muscle strength and correcting common complications of cancer such as weakness, weight loss and anemia, said principal investigator Ruxandra Draghia-Akli, a researcher with VGX Pharmaceuticals Inc.

Complications such as those occur in more than 50 percent of cancer patients and, along with loss of appetite and fatigue, can result in poor quality of life.

"With our type of gene therapy," Draghia-Akli said, "we can ´trick´ certain types of cells in the body to naturally produce specific hormones." These hormones have a muscle-building, or anabolic, effect.

Science Daily reports the researchers tested the gene therapy in 55 companion dogs that had cancer and anemia and were receiving cancer treatment. Three months after the injection, 54 percent of the dogs had responded to gene therapy.

Dogs that responded to therapy survived 84 percent longer, compared with dogs that did not respond to gene therapy and untreated control dogs that received a placebo injection. Although the response rate dropped to 47 percent at 4 months, it was still 22 percent higher than in control dogs.

The study data also showed quality of life, especially appetite, dramatically improved with the gene therapy, and complications of chemotherapy, such as vomiting and diarrhea were greatly reduced.

The therapy uses a nonviral DNA molecule, called a plasmid, which is injected into a muscle, and "electroporation" -- short, mild, controlled electric fields -- in the area of the injection, which open the cell membrane pores and traps the DNA inside the cells.