A Bloomfield Hills veterinary hospital is using traditional Chinese herbal medicine to treat dogs with a common type of spleen cancer, as part of a clinical study that began in August to prolong the canines’ lives.

Oakland Veterinary Referral Services announced in a news release this week that it is conducting a nationwide study on dogs with canine splenic hemangiosarcoma, a disease mostly treated by removing the spleen after the tumor has ruptured and bled —a procedure that could lead to life-threatening blood loss.

The disease is aggressive in nature, and survival time after surgery is short, with most dogs living only two months afterward because of the spread of cancer to other organs, according to the release.

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Chemotherapy is usually recommended after the surgery to prolong the dog’s life, but this new study aims to determine whether using a Chinese herbal medicine regimen can prolong survival time after surgery in dogs with no sign of cancer spread, according to the news release.

The study will use a modification of a centuries-old formula "with no published reports of toxicity in humans or animals,"  according to a statement from Dr. Erin Bannink, who will direct the study. 

"Panax notoginseng (San Qi), one of the main herbs in this formula, contains ginsenosides which have shown antitumor activity,” Bannink said.

Herbal therapies can assist in the management of aggressive cancers because of their anti-inflammatory, anti-angiogenic—or anti-blood vessel formation—and immune modulating activity, Bannink said

“We hypothesize that dogs treated with this standardized protocol after splenectomy will have improved survival times over historical controls treated with splenectomy alone, and will provide long-term survival rates comparable to or better than historical controls treated with splenectomy and chemotherapy,” Bannink said.

The hospital cited a past of evaluation of 14 dogs with the stage II splenic hemangiosarcoma resulted in a “median survival time of 253 days, with a 36-percent one-year survival rate and 14-percent two-year survival rate.”

Dog owners will have to bring their dogs to Michigan to participate in the study, said Rachel Bonello, a spokeswoman on behalf of the hospital.

The study will cover the costs of all herbal medicine and supplement prescriptions for up to 12 months of therapy—which is a $1,568 to $2,400 value per patient—according to the clinical trial criteria form.

Pet owners with dogs with stage II splenic hemangiosarcoma are asked to volunteer their dogs for the study free of charge, and interested owners can email info@ovrs.com for more information about the criteria, responsibilities, and submission process, according to the news release.

Contact Hasan Dudar at hdudar@freepress.com.