Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Rescue chemo with dexamethasone and melphalan for cats with lymphoma
By Elliott, J & Finotello, R·Published in Veterinary and comparative oncology·2018·Willows Veterinary Centre and Referral Service, United Kingdom·View original on PubMed →
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Original publication title: A dexamethasone, melphalan, actinomycin-D and cytarabine chemotherapy protocol as a rescue treatment for feline lymphoma.
- Species:
- cat
Plain-English summary
Nineteen cats with relapsed high-grade lymphoma were treated with a combination of four chemotherapy drugs: dexamethasone, melphalan, actinomycin-D, and cytarabine (known as DMAC). These cats had already undergone multiple treatments without success, but only five of them showed any improvement in their symptoms or tumor size after the DMAC treatment. While most cats handled the treatment well, a few experienced serious side effects like low white blood cell and platelet counts. Unfortunately, the average time before the disease progressed again was just over two weeks, indicating that more effective treatments are still needed for cats with this condition.
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Abstract
Nineteen cats with relapsed high-grade/large-cell lymphoma were treated with dexamethasone, melphalan, actinomycin-D and cytarabine (DMAC). All cats had received Cyclophosphamide, Vincristine, Prednisolone (COP) as first-line chemotherapy and most cats had received at least 2 prior rescue agents with 14 of 19 having received both epirubicin and lomustine. Five cats (26%) exhibited a response (defined as an improvement or resolution of tumour-associated clinical signs/tumour volume, or complete/partial response) to chemotherapy though no patients received more than 2 cycles of DMAC. Most cats tolerated the protocol well though 3 patients exhibited Veterinary Cooperative Oncology Group (VCOG) grade 4 neutropenia and 1 patient exhibited grade 4 thrombocytopenia. The median progression-free survival and overall survival from starting DMAC were 14 and 17 days respectively. There is still an unmet need for successful rescue chemotherapy protocol for cats with relapsed lymphoma. [Correction added on 02 November 2017, after first online publication: The expansion for the term DMAC was previously incorrect and has been corrected in this current version.].
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Search related cases →Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29044884/