Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Weight loss and vomiting in cats with pancreatic cancer survival times
By Linderman, M J et al.·Published in Veterinary and comparative oncology·2013·The Veterinary Oncology and Hematology Center, United States·View original on PubMed →
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Original publication title: Feline exocrine pancreatic carcinoma: a retrospective study of 34 cases.
- Species:
- cat
Plain-English summary
A group of 34 cats with exocrine pancreatic cancer were studied to understand their symptoms and treatment outcomes. Common signs included weight loss, decreased appetite, vomiting, and diarrhea, with some having a noticeable abdominal mass. Cats that underwent surgery or received chemotherapy had a better survival rate, living a median of 165 days, while those with abdominal fluid only survived about 30 days. This type of cancer is aggressive, but a few cats did survive for over a year with treatment.
People also search for: cat vomiting weight loss · feline pancreatic cancer treatment · cat abdominal mass symptoms
Abstract
Thirty-four cases were reviewed in this retrospective study for information on clinical presentation, prognostic indicators, survival time and response to various therapies. The most common presenting clinical signs were weight loss, decreased appetite, vomiting, palpable abdominal mass and diarrhoea. Metastatic disease was confirmed in 11 cats. The overall median survival was 97 days. The median survival times for patients who received chemotherapy or had their masses surgically removed was 165 days. Those patients who had an abdominal effusion present at the time of diagnosis survived a median of 30 days. Cats that received non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug therapy had a median survival of 26 days. This study confirms that exocrine pancreatic carcinoma in cats is an aggressive tumour with a high metastatic rate and poor prognosis, although three patients survived over 1 year. Fifteen percent of the patients were diabetic, which raises the question as to what the link between diabetes and pancreatic cancer in people and cats may be.
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Search related cases →Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22612638/