A drug called monepantel will help canines diagnosed with B-cell lymphoma

Melbourne resident Michael Ferdinand had never expected the bad news he would get when he had to take her to the vet late last year.

The black Labrador had torn the anterior cruciate ligament in her back knee.

While that was being assessed, the vet discovered something even more worrying - lumps under Bella's chin and behind her knees.

Bella was later diagnosed with B-cell lymphoma.

Mr Ferdinand said he was grateful, in hindsight, that suffering the injury allowed an early diagnosis of the cancer.

The only option was chemotherapy, but at $20,000 for each treatment - as well as the time required plus side-effects - Mr Ferdinand began researching other options.

Thanks to being a shareholder of PharmAust, a clinical-stage company developing targeted cancer therapeutics to address both human and animal healthcare, he knew there was a trial under way targeting dogs with the same cancer as Bella's.

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Ultimately, that led him to him starting Bella on the drug monepantel, but the closest treatment he could source was in Albury.

Bella has been on monepantel treatment now for the past two weeks and takes two tablets by the mouth each morning.

"It's a long process," he said.

"But the chemotherapy side effects and poor quality of life compared with the trial is amazing really.

"I wanted to do the program to prolong the event result and give Bella the best life, while we can."

Although the cancer is terminal, Dr Renee Pigdon from Petfocus Vetcare said she wanted to offer the treatment as an alternative to patients having to travel to the bigger cities to access treatments.

"It's a big ask for owners to get treatment for their dogs elsewhere," Dr Pigdon said. "We see a lot of dogs with lymphoma, but it's very close to my heart - my daughter was diagnosed with it when she was 14.

Mr Ferdinand said he hoped Bella would get another 12 months and so far she had suffered no side-effects from the treatment.

"As much as the terminal diagnosis is extremely sad for our family, I'm glad that Bella can be a part of such an important trial that could benefit a lot of other dogs in the future," he said.

"Nothing can cure her cancer, not even this trial, but in the back of my mind this was the best thing for her.

Dr Pigdon said she hoped to get more numbers on board.

"The feedback we've received on the program is better than expected."

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