Dog Sarcoma Therapy

The drug eBAT is a bispecific angiotoxin targeted to both tumor and tumor neovasculature for sarcomas. It has been shown effectively kills canine hemangiosarcoma and human sarcoma cells in vitro. The paper studied the drug in an in vivo ontarget companion dog trial. Splenectomized dogs with minimal residual disease were given one cycle of eBAT followed by adjuvant doxorubicin in an adaptive dose-finding, phase I--II study of 23 dogs with spontaneous, stage I--II, splenic hemangiosarcoma. eBAT improved 6-month survival from <40% in a comparison population to approximately 70% in dogs treated at a biologically active dose (50 mg/kg). Six dogs were long-term survivors, living >450 days. The expected targeted markers, uPAR and EGFR, are validated in both human and canine sarcoma samples. The results support further translation of eBAT for human patients with sarcomas and perhaps other EGFR-expressing malignancies.