Rosie was a staffie cross dog who was diagnosed at age five with mask cell skin cancer in her back legs.
After multiple surgeries and targeted therapies, Rosie’s owner Paul Conyngham used his tech experience to explore treatment options using AI alternatives.
Rosie has gone through an amazing transformation which is attributed to a mRNA vaccine Paul designed with the help of AI and scientists at the University of NSW.
The vaccine is not a cure, but Rosie’s legs became visible and stronger instead of being full of lumpy tumours.
She has become happier and full of life again, since earlier this year.
The treatment only cost Paul $3,000 which covered the cost of DNA and tumour sequencing at UNSW.
The scientists involved graciously volunteered their time.
Some of the biggest gains in cancer survival in recent times have been driven by a new class of treatments known as immunotherapy delivered by a vaccine that activates the immune system.
Vaccines for cancer treatment is challenging, because unlike bacteria and viruses, which the immune system clearly recognizes as foreign, cancer cells closely resemble normal healthy cells.
Each cancer is unique with its own set of antigens which are peptides or proteins that are either on the cell surface or in the bloodstream.
However, compared to normal cells these antigens are overproduced and become the markers for treatment.
Traditional chemotherapy is essentially poison, using these treatments will hopefully poison more fast-growing cancer cells than healthy cells.
There are several types of immunotherapies, but the basic action is the same; to teach the immune system to recognize and fight cancers.
This aggressive type of skin carcinoma did not respond to standard chemotherapy, that is why Paul sought out alternatives.
Rosie’s initial response was incredibly responsive, shrinking her tumours by 50 to 75 per cent which is partial remission.
It also restored her mobility and quality of life.
Unfortunately, the cancer was not entirely cured and Rosie passed away after the cancer became aggressive and resistant once again, when Paul made the difficult decision to euthanise Rosie in late June 2026.
She was eight years old at that time.
