Hi Paul!  After you first mentioned Auranofin (I think Ridaura is the brand name), I shared the abstract of the pilot study with Griffin's oncologist, who said that the dosage would be 9mg every 3rd day.  She said that she would want Griffin to finish chemo before starting this drug due to the potential side effects (bone marrow, GI, liver and kidney toxicity), although those were reported in higher dosages of 9mg each day.  She said if I wanted to move forward now, she would recommend weekly blood work to monitor for toxicity.  I then found this Treatment of Metastic Osteosarcoma, which describes the study and lists the dosage as 3mg every 3rd day.  I haven't heard back from the oncologist yet after sending the summary, because the dosage difference would be a huge factor in terms of reducing chances of toxicity and also of cost.  I looked into purchasing the drug online from Canada, where is seems that 60 pills in 3mg dosage is about $425.  Arktik's mom, Patricia, posted about Auranofin today and I asked her to post on this thread.  She said the drug wasn't too expensive (she is in Canada), so hopefully she'll have more information to share.  Thanks so much for bringing this topic to the forum.  The study seems really promising in terms of preventing lung mets, which would be huge for pups with osteosarcoma!  ~ Stacy

Hi All,

Last week in our second appointment for chemo, the oncologist mentioned Auranofin as a new treatment that became available for us. I was very curious as it seemed interesting (I only found one recent article on it). Also, it was surprisingly not too expensive. I have to admit we are really at the top of our budget with the ampu and the chemo. But here it was only 250$ (at this point we thought this was fairly cheap all things considered). I am not sure this is for how many pills, I have not received it yet. 

The oncologist suggest we start it as soon as possible, even if we have not finish chemo yet. I believe it will be on smaller dosage (maybe similar to what Stacy was saying with 3mg every 3 days) because they mentioned it would be every 3 days. The reason I don't have it with me yet is that we took a couple of days before deciding about this, so the clinic is shipping it to us. I should receive it tomorrow I believe. I will know the details of the treatment. 

I also read about possible toxicity but it seemed mainly at larger dosage. And our oncologist mentioned the dosage is pretty low, so not many side effects. 

I will keep you posted!

Here are the articles I found on the topic. 

https://www.ncb.....MC4808036/

https://journal.....ne.0194224

https://www.res.....teosarcoma

Sorry for the late update! I have been taking advantage of the amazing weather we have been having the past week 🙂 Arktik had a blast playing outside (even though he thinks it is a bit hot with his winter coat still on ..he likes to shed only in June )

So about the prescription of Auranofin I got, the treatment is 3 pills (3mg each) every 3 days. So it is 9mg once every 3 days. Which is consistent with what Stacy said in an earlier post as well in terms of treatment. Not sure why it is like this instead of 1 pill/day. I will ask in my next appointment. I just got started, so far so good. 

Auranofin sounds like something worth looking into. Is it typically taken while a dog is undergoing IV Chemo treatment or after?

I will be sure to ask Copper's Oncologist about it. It's interesting that in the pilot study Stacy posted it states "AF improves OS in male dogs" - Copper is female, so i'll be sure to ask about why that might be too.

Thanks for the update, Patricia!  I don't know why I thought this would be an ongoing prescription, not one for a set period of time like 3 weeks.  Oakley's dad, Paul, was the first to raise the topic of Auranofin on here, so maybe he can weigh in with what his oncologist recommended.

I asked Copper's Oncologist about Auranofin and she is currently looking into it for me. Looks like in my area it cost ~1,300$ for 60 pills according to GoodRx! My Oncologist is reaching out about cost as well. I will update y'all as I know more.