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Peer-reviewed veterinary case report

Chemotherapy does not improve survival after thyroid cancer surgery

By Nadeau, Marie-Eve & Kitchell, Barbara E·Published in The Canadian veterinary journal = La revue veterinaire canadienne·2011·Universit&#xe9, Canada·View original on PubMed

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Original publication title: Evaluation of the use of chemotherapy and other prognostic variables for surgically excised canine thyroid carcinoma with and without metastasis.

Species:
dog

Plain-English summary

A group of 44 dogs with thyroid cancer underwent surgery, with some receiving additional chemotherapy. The dogs that had surgery alone and those that had surgery plus chemotherapy had similar survival times, averaging about 518 days. The number of thyroid lobes removed during surgery seemed to influence how long the dogs lived after treatment. Although nearly half of the dogs had metastasis (cancer spread), adding chemotherapy did not lead to a longer life for these pets.

People also search for: dog thyroid cancer treatment · chemotherapy for dogs · dog cancer survival rates · canine thyroid surgery outcomes

Abstract

This retrospective study compared the efficacy of surgery alone versus surgery in combination with chemotherapy in the treatment of canine thyroid carcinoma; potential prognostic factors were evaluated. Forty-four dogs with biopsy-confirmed thyroid carcinoma met the inclusion criteria. Twenty-eight dogs were treated with surgery alone and 16 with surgery and chemotherapy. The median survival of dogs treated with surgery and chemotherapy was 518 d, which was not statistically different from that of the dogs treated with surgery alone. The number of thyroid lobes removed at surgery was prognostic with respect to survival. Despite an overall metastatic rate of 48%, the addition of chemotherapy to surgical excision did not improve survival; however, this finding may be due to inadequate power to demonstrate a difference.

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Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22379200/