Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Cat with brain tumor showed improvement after hydroxyurea
By Yun, Taesik et al.·Published in Frontiers in veterinary science·2021·College of Veterinary Medicine, South Korea·View original on PubMed →
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Original publication title: Case Report: Long-Term Chemotherapy With Hydroxyurea and Prednisolone in a Cat With a Meningioma: Correlation of FDG Uptake and Tumor Grade Assessed by Histopathology and Expression of Ki-67 and p53.
- Species:
- cat
Plain-English summary
A 15.5-year-old neutered male domestic shorthair cat was brought in for neurological issues, including confusion and difficulty walking. After an MRI, the vet suspected a brain tumor called a meningioma. The cat was treated with hydroxyurea and prednisolone, which helped improve his alertness and coordination. Unfortunately, the cat passed away 408 days later, but a postmortem confirmed the tumor was a grade 1 meningioma. This case suggests that chemotherapy could be a viable option for treating meningiomas in cats.
People also search for: cat brain tumor treatment · meningioma in cats · hydroxyurea for cats · cat neurological problems · cat chemotherapy side effects
Abstract
A 15.5-year-old, neutered, male, domestic shorthair cat was presented with neurologic dysfunctions. At presentation, an obtunded mental status and vestibular ataxia were identified. On neurologic examination, postural reactions were decreased-to-absent in all four limbs, and pupillary light reflexes showed bilaterally delayed results. Magnetic resonance imaging was performed, and a demarcated lesion was identified in the third ventricle. The cat was tentatively diagnosed with a brain tumor, which was suspected to be a meningioma. The cat was treated with hydroxyurea and prednisolone. Mental status was considered more alert, and ataxia improved following treatment. On the 106th day after the commencement of treatment, aF-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG)-positron emission tomography (PET) scan was performed. On the PET images, a hypermetabolic region was found in the lesion. The average standardized uptake value of FDG was 2.47, and the tumor-to-normal-tissue ratio was 1.25. The cat died 408 days following the commencement of treatment, and a grade 1 meningioma was confirmed by postmortem histopathology. Immunohistochemistry for Ki-67 and p53 was performed. The labeling indices of Ki-67 and p53 were 2.56 and 0%, respectively. This case shows that chemotherapy with hydroxyurea and prednisolone may be considered in the treatment of feline meningiomas. Furthermore, this is the first case describing the application of FDG-PET to visualize a naturally occurring meningioma in a cat.
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Search related cases →Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33575281/