George & Sissy

Has anyone heard about Masitinib?

I heard Dr. Demian Dressler, DVM, speak about this chemo drug on a recent webcast. He said it was developed in France under a different name, which I don't recall, and that it is available in the U.S. through the compassionate use program. It does not have FDA approval, and I don't know if it has been submitted yet to the FDA. My vet has looked into it and has ordered it for possible use with my 10 y.o. Malamute.

Please share any experience you have with Masitinib. I will do the same, if or when we obtain and try it.

5dogsmom

Hi George & Sissy,

I was wondering how Masitinib has been working for you guys. Our oncologist just switched us off gleevec to masitinib today. She has a tumor on her heart that ruptured 5 weeks ago. We've managed to control the bleeding with yunnan baiyao and a number of other chinese herbs. The tumor is now more solid and not in immediate danger of rupturing, however it did grow over the past 3 weeks.

We're hoping to slow the growth rate down and kill this sucker. We also noticed another in her abdomen grew as well - not sure the gleevec was working?

Kris

Bisto

The drug is marketed by AB science of Paris as Masivet. It is designed for use with dogs with aggressive mast cell tumours that have a particular mutation. I have a whippet that had a very aggressive mast cell tumour removed by surgery. This spread and I had it removed several times until I decided chemo was the only option. Vinblastine and Prednisolone were given and seemed to slow it down a little. I then took my dog to Liverpool Small Animal Teaching Hospital which is one of the top veterinary research hospitals in Europe. I was given Lomustine and Prednisolone to give to the dog but she was very poorly off this despite a conservative dose. The next option was mastinib. It worked instantly, the tumours reducing in size and becoming crusty until they'd almost vanished in a couple of days. However, the dog became ill, needed a break off the drug, needed antibiotics for an infection as white blood cell counts (and red ones) were low. This process has gone on several times, she is still alive, has good days and bad, but her time is approaching. I have given her about 6 months more to live, some of it quality time, some of it not and I wonder if I've done the right thing for her. I've spent about four thousand Pounds on her. I hope this has helped you with your decision. Oh, and my opinion of Chinese medicine... there is no scientific evidence for any of it. Get veterinary advice, if it isn't considered harmful, then try it, but don't rely on it solely... especially when pain starts to play a part. There is another drug similar to Masivet available in USA produced by Pfizer. It's called Palladia and is the final option for my dog. I hope this is of some use.

5dogsmom

I wanted to report back after hearing from someone that unfortunately the mastinib did NOT work. It made things MUCH MUCH worse and within a couple of week our baby girl was in kidney failure and passed away. The Mastinib caused this. Her tumors were shrinking from the chinese herbs and yunnan biayao, and there was no danger of them rupturing. We found out later that a chemo sensitivity test had NOT been done prior to putting her on mastinib like we had asked. I urge anyone trying chemo on their dogs (or other pets, or themselves for that matter) to get chemo sensitivity testing before even starting chemo. A very small percentage of the population even responds to chemo favorably, the rest just get annihilated by it. Unfortunately this is what happened in our case and I'm still kicking myself in the pants about it. I didn't like the way she was reacting to it and wanted to take her office, the vet said to stay on, as did their manufacturer, AB Science. I did take her off for a week and she improved significantly and when they tried her on a lower dose she went down hill again, really fast.

Benpaws

I don't know if Maistinib would have worked or not for Benny. Benny didn't survive his MCT and today I met a friend on our walk and her dog had the same thing as Benny, a very small lump at age one (I found Benny's at age 3 years, 10 months and nothing was done at that time.) Her vet immediately checked the lump and surgery was performed and he is 6 and CANCER FREE!

This really upset me! Benny got a "raw deal" and he would still be with us if procedures had been followed and the surgery would have saved his life!

He too was on Yunnan Biayao for the bleeding and it helped but he is still GONE!

It is still difficult to realize that we trusted our vet and thought Benny was in the best care. Our other two schnauzers had good care and we just continued with that clinic with Benny.

We cannot go back but we can still feel anger and hurt that Benny was denied the treatment that he so deserved.

Joanne

Shinmen Takezo

For the last week my Shepard has been on Masitinib, and I have not seen any side affects of concern. He is slightly lethargic right after taking the pills, but other than that nothing yet.

After reading a post above I am checking his gum color several times a day, and his responses. So far so good.

I think the side affect issue must be factored in the the dogs: age, weight, cardio conditioning and so on. If a dog is creaky and old and in fair to poor health to begin with--yeah I think you are going to have some issuse with any kind of strong internal drug (including chemo).

But my dog, even though he is 10, acts and runs more like a 4 year old and came into this disease in excellent condition... so maybe this is a factor. I have not had one side affect from the vinblastine so far, other than a little bit of anexity (sp?) right after it was administered.