Josie, a terrier mix from Owings Mills, Md., was the first dog to survive a clinical trial at Johns Hopkins Hospital aimed at finding a treatment for hemangiosarcoma, one of the most deadly cancers for pets.

Josie was diagnosed in December 2017 with cancer in the lining of the blood vessels. Josie’s owners, Wes and Heidi Robertson, took Josie to a veterinary surgeon who said she would have two days to live if he did not remove her tumors. Josie could have up to a month if he has a successful surgery, but there was an 80% chance he would have to put her down during the procedure.

“We opted to do the surgery, and he removed her spleen. He said he was taking ping pong ball-sized tumors out of her, and she’s not a big dog,” Wes Robertson said. “The cancer, at that point, was just everywhere in there, but he removed the tumors that he could.”

After Josie survived surgery, her doctors referred her to the clinical trial at the Johns Hopkins Center for Image-Guided Animal Therapy to test an FDA-approved drug normally used in humans to slow the spread of breast cancer. The drug’s name is not available to the public. …Read the full story at USA Today

Source: USA Today