Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Dog with cerebellar tumor treated with imatinib and hydroxyurea
By Jung, Hae-Won et al.·Published in The Journal of veterinary medical science·2014·Institute of Animal Medicine, South Korea·View original on PubMed →
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Original publication title: Imatinib mesylate plus hydroxyurea chemotherapy for cerebellar meningioma in a Belgian Malinois dog.
- Species:
- dog
Plain-English summary
An 8-year-old male Belgian Malinois was brought in because he had weakness on the right side of his face, trouble walking, and a decline in mental sharpness over the past two months. A CT scan revealed a mass in his brain, suspected to be a cerebellar meningioma (a type of brain tumor). Initially, he was treated with hydroxyurea and prednisolone, which reduced the tumor size for a while, but it later grew again. The vet then switched to a combination of imatinib mesylate and hydroxyurea, which significantly shrank the tumor before the dog sadly passed away during anesthesia.
People also search for: dog brain tumor treatment · Belgian Malinois cognitive decline · imatinib for dog meningioma
Abstract
An 8-year-old intact male Belgian Malinois, weighing 37.2 kg, was referred for evaluation due to right side facial paresis, ataxia and a 2-month history of decreased cognitive ability. Physical and neurological examinations revealed mild depression, left-sided head tilt, right-sided facial paresis and ataxia. A well-demarcated, broad-based cerebellar mass and hyperostosis were found on CT imaging of the brain. Based on these CT findings, a cerebellar meningioma was strongly suspected. Hydroxyurea and prednisolone were administered; after 4 weeks, there was reduction in mass size as compared to initial CT results. However, the mass size was found to have grown 6 weeks after hydroxyurea treatment. We then prescribed a combination of imatinib mesylate and hydroxyurea. Two weeks following combination treatment, the mass size had reduced significantly. The mass continuously decreased in size until the patient died during anesthesia. Cerebellar transitional meningioma was confirmed by histopathologic examination. To the author's knowledge, this is the first reported case of imatinib mesylate plus hydroxyurea therapy for the treatment of meningioma in veterinary medicine.
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Search related cases →Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25131949/