Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Dog with rare leukemia treated successfully with 37 chemo cycles
By Willmann, Michael et al.·Published in In vivo (Athens, Greece)·2009·Department for Companion Animals and Horses·View original on PubMed →
PetCaseFinder translated the abstract of this peer-reviewed paper into plain English so pet owners can read it. We do not publish original research — every detail traces back to the citation above. How we work →
Original publication title: Chemotherapy in canine acute megakaryoblastic leukemia: a case report and review of the literature.
- Species:
- dog
Plain-English summary
A 3.5-year-old male Labrador was diagnosed with a rare type of leukemia called acute megakaryoblastic leukemia. He underwent a series of chemotherapy treatments, which included several medications, and remarkably achieved complete remission. Although he experienced relapses after a few months, the same chemotherapy was used again, and he remained stable for two years without severe side effects. This case highlights the potential effectiveness of high-dose chemotherapy in managing this serious condition in dogs.
People also search for: dog leukemia treatment · Labrador chemotherapy side effects · acute leukemia in dogs
Abstract
Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) in dogs is a rare disease with poor prognosis. In most subjects, palliative treatment or euthanasia is performed. A 3.5-year-old male castrated labrador with AML-M7, which was treated with induction polychemotherapy (8 cycles) using vincristine (0.5 mg/m(2)/cycle), daunorubicin (20 mg/m(2)/cycle), cytosine arabinoside (ARA-C, 100 mg/m(2)/cycle) and prednisolone (1 mg/kg/day) is reported. Treatment was well tolerated and complete remission was achieved. Postinduction chemotherapy consisted of ARA-C, daunorubicin and prednisolone. After 3, 5 and 18 months, the subject relapsed. Each relapse was treated with ARA-C (up to 1,000 mg/m(2)) and etoposide or daunorubicin. Again, no severe side-effects occurred and the disease was controlled, with 37 chemotherapy-cycles (ARA-C, 3 x 1,000 mg/m(2)/cycle), for 24 months. Based on a literature-search, this is the first report documenting a long-term response of canine AML, probably resulting from the high-dose ARA-C. Clinical trials using high-dose ARA-C are now required to confirm antileukemic efficacy in canine leukemias.
Find similar cases for your pet
PetCaseFinder finds other peer-reviewed reports of pets with the same symptoms, plus a plain-English summary of what was tried across them.
Search related cases →Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20023232/