Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Dog bone cancer treated with amputation and faster chemo schedule
By Frimberger, Angela E et al.·Published in Journal of the American Animal Hospital Association·2016·and Animal Referral Hospital, Australia·View original on PubMed →
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Original publication title: Canine Osteosarcoma Treated by Post-Amputation Sequential Accelerated Doxorubicin and Carboplatin Chemotherapy: 38 Cases.
- Species:
- dog
Plain-English summary
A group of 38 dogs diagnosed with bone cancer (osteosarcoma) had their legs amputated and then received a special chemotherapy treatment that involved two drugs, doxorubicin and carboplatin, given more frequently than usual. This approach aimed to improve their chances of survival. The dogs had a median survival time of about 10 months, with nearly half surviving for at least a year after treatment. Most dogs tolerated the chemotherapy well, with only a small number needing hospitalization for side effects that were manageable.
People also search for: dog osteosarcoma treatment · chemotherapy for dog cancer · dog amputation recovery time
Abstract
Canine appendicular osteosarcoma is an important clinical problem in veterinary medicine. Current standard therapy includes amputation followed by chemotherapy, which improves outcomes; however the percentage of long-term survival is still relatively low at 15-20%. Established prognostic factors include serum alkaline phosphatase level, histologic grade, and lymphocyte and monocyte counts. We used a protocol with shorter inter-treatment intervals than standard, but which we expected to still be well-tolerated, based on drugs known to be active agents, with the aim of improving outcomes by increasing dose intensity. Thirty-eight dogs with confirmed appendicular osteosarcoma and no pulmonary metastases that underwent amputation followed by this chemotherapy protocol were retrospectively evaluated. The median survival time was 317 days and 1- and 2-yr survival percentages were 43.2% and 13.9%, respectively. Toxicity was comparable to that seen with other standard dose protocols, with 5.2% of dogs hospitalized for complications that resolved with supportive care and no chemotherapy-related mortality. Serum alkaline phosphatase level (normal or high) (p = 0.004) and whether or not chemotherapy was completed (p = 0.001) were found to significantly impact survival time on multivariate analysis. Outcomes were similar to those reported with most other published chemotherapy protocols for dogs with this disease.
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Search related cases →Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27008320/