Customised canine tumour treatment is "next big leap in personalised medicine"

In her translational research, Dr Michelle Oblak from Ontario Veterinary College at the University of Guelph is examining dogs as a disease model for cancer in humans. She is studying the use of rapid prototyping for advance planning of surgeries and 3D printed implants for reconstruction, using the University of Guelph’s rapid prototyping of patient-specific implants for dogs (RaPPID) working group.

“The technology has grown so quickly, and to be able to offer this incredible, customised, state-of-the-art plate in one of our canine patients was really amazing,” said Oblak, assistant co-director of the U of G’s Institute for Comparative Cancer Investigation.

Oblak performed the procedure on Patches the dachshund with Dr. Galina Hayes at Cornell University’s College of Veterinary Medicine in Ithaca, New York. Hayes had asked Oblak for advice on how best to treat the dog’s tumour, a multilobular osteochondrosarcoma that had grown so large that it was weighing down the dog’s head and growing into her skull.