Ask the NorthStar VETS Vet: I’m-Yunity extract for dogs with cancer

Q: My 11 year old Lab was recently diagnosed with a splenic mass via ultrasound at your facility. Unfortunately, the mass ruptured prior to being able to get her into surgery. She did have emergency surgery at another specialty hospital and the spleen and mass were removed. She is doing FANTASTIC! The biopsy came back as a probable Hemangiosarcoma, but her liver biopsy was clean. We are opting NOT to give her Chemo. My vet mentioned to me a drug that the University of Penn did studies with, a mushroom extract called I’m Yunity. Do you know anything about this and would you suggest giving her these supplements?

A: More information can be found on that study at http://www.upenn.edu/pennnews/news/compound-derived-mushroom-lengthens-survival-time-dogs-cancer-penn-vet-study-finds.

From this link you can see that this supplement does increase survival from 86 days to 199 days in dogs that have only had surgery at the 100mg/kg group. What hasn’t been published yet is the survival data for other dosage groups. They did say that the other treatment groups were statistically the same. Please keep in mind that a 1 week supply for an 80 pound dog is ~$100 so this doesn’t come cheap, but they also mention no side effects, which is great. I have personally never used this supplement, but would be interested in using it if a client was interested.

Jennifer Kim, DVM
Dr. Kim grew up in New York and received her BA from the University of Pennsylvania in 1998. After spending two years at the National Cancer Institute performing cancer genetic research, she attended veterinary school at Tufts University, graduating in 2003. Dr. Kim completed a rotating internship at the Animal Medical Center in Manhattan, New York and then an oncology internship at Cornell University. She initially began at NorthStar VETS as an emergency clinician in 2005 and returned to us in January 2010 to treat oncology patients after completing a residency in medical oncology at Michigan State University, sponsored by NorthStar VETS.

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