We wanted to get a current picture on the status of how mushroom therapy treatment is doing out there in the real world, so we wrote to my oncologist, Dr. Marie Mullins, who led the K9 Immunity clinical trial that I participated in, when I was patient in 2008 at the Santa Fe Veterinary Cancer center.

With her permission to quote her, here is what Dr. Mullins said about the study:

“The results of the K9 Immunity trial have not yet been published. They were submitted to JAVMA* but rejected (they rarely publish articles on nutriceuticals). They were going to try to get it published in some international mushroom journal (not sure of the exact name) but I have not heard much since then (October 2008 time frame).

The data that I saw was all very preliminary (some of the dogs were still alive). At that point in time, it did not appear to significantly extend survival times but the case numbers were low and statistics lacking.

However, it seemed to overwhelmingly improve their quality of life and protect most of the dogs from untoward chemotherapy side effects.”

In our own limited knowledge about mushroom therapy, we recently learned that mushroom therapy isn’t just something being promoted for dog cancers only. A family friend who is a certified “ND,” a naturopathic doctor, in Washington state, and specializes in holistic cancer treatments, uses mushroom therapy for her own human patients.

It’s so hard to know what is fact and what is fiction when it comes to nutriceuticals, but by posting your stories and experiences with K9 Immunity and other canine cancer therapies here in our Eating Healthy Forums, we can try to help get the official verdict out to the public much sooner.

*Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association

UPDATE: The final results of the Santa Fe Cancer Care clinic’s K9 Immunity Study can be downloaded here as a PDF document.

Mom and Dad knew about K9 Immunity, but had never tried it before. It’s a supplement made from medicinal mushrooms, that’s supposed to help my immune system out. When I first got sick, they chose to focus on giving me a narrow list of supplements to keep me healthy, so that they could eventually measure the results of my supplement regime against osteosarcoma dogs who had not been on those same supplements.

But then my cancer returned, and Mom and Dad decided to take out the big guns. The Veterinary Cancer Care clinic is doing a clinical trial with K9 Immunity, and I am so happy to report that I was selected for it.

What Are We Trying to Find Out?
The people who make K9 Immunity decided to sponsor this trial, because of the lack of hard evidence out there that immune-boosting supplements like K9 Immunity actually work. At the Veterinary Cancer clinic, patients with canine lymphoma, mast cell tumor, osteosarcoma and splenic hemangiosarcoma are elibigle to receive K9 Immunity at no charge if they met the criteria. Pawrents though, are responsible for follow up tests and the like. Seems like a fair deal to me!

In this study, dogs will get K9 Immunity alongside conventional chemotherapy treatment. Then, the pawrents are responsible for keeping very detailed records about my everyday life. Like, what I ate and when, what my activity level was like, and even what my poo was like!

Participants are evaluated for: Tumor remission status, disease free interval, survival time, conventional therapy side effects, and overall quality of life. The information will be compared to dogs who didn’t receive K9 Immunity. It’s a long-term study and the results won’t be published for at least a year, but I’m so happy to know that I’m helping to fight osteosarcoma.

So far I feel pretty great. I’m not experiencing any side effects from my low-dose chemo, and my energy level is the same as it was before we know about my metastasis. K9 Immunity seems to be working just great, in my book!

Next week I have a follow up appointment at the vet to see how I am doing. I’ll report back then and give you the whole scoop on how K9 Immunity is helping me out.