Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Anal sac tumors in dogs treated with surgery and chemo response
By Emms, S G·Published in Australian veterinary journal·2005·Camberwell Veterinary Clinic·View original on PubMed →
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Original publication title: Anal sac tumours of the dog and their response to cytoreductive surgery and chemotherapy.
- Species:
- dog
Plain-English summary
A group of dogs with anal sac tumors, specifically apocrine gland adenocarcinomas, underwent surgery and chemotherapy with a drug called melphalan. Out of 21 dogs, 14 received treatment, which involved removing the tumor and affected lymph nodes. The results showed that dogs with localized tumors lived an average of 29.3 months after treatment, while those with lymph node involvement had a median survival of 20 months. This suggests that combining surgery with melphalan can be effective for treating anal sac tumors in dogs, leading to favorable survival times.
People also search for: dog anal sac tumor treatment · melphalan for dog cancer · anal sac adenocarcinoma survival rate
Abstract
A retrospective study of anal sac tumours without pulmonary metastases, from the author's clinical records for the period July 1989 to July 2002, was conducted to establish the response to treatment with surgery and melphalan chemotherapy. Of 21 dogs with tumours of the anal sacs 19 had apocrine gland adenocarcinomas of anal sac origin, one had a benign papillary cystadenoma and another had a malignant melanoma. Two of the 19 dogs had bilateral anal sac adenocarcinomas. Ten of the 19 dogs with apocrine gland adenocarcinomas of anal sac origin had sublumbar lymphadenopathy. Five dogs were excluded by their owners from recommended treatment. Fourteen dogs with apocrine gland adenocarcinomas of anal sac origin were treated by surgical cytoreduction and chemotherapy with melphalan. Seven of the 14 dogs had regional lymph node metastases. Cytoreduction was by local excision of the anal sac in all 14 dogs and concurrent removal of the sublumbar retroperitoneal lymph nodes in the seven dogs with regional lymph node metastases. The median survival time of dogs with sublumbar nodal metastasis was 20 months and for dogs with tumour localised to the anal sac the median survival time was 29.3 months. There was no difference in median survival of those dogs with sublumbar metastases compared to those without. This study suggests there is a role for melphalan in the treatment of dogs with anal sac adenocarcinoma when combined with cytoreductive surgery, with treatment survival times and the local recurrence rate of the primary tumour comparing favourably with previously published treatment regimes.
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Search related cases →Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15986909/