Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Survival factors in dogs with acute leukemia after diagnosis
By Novacco, M et al.·Published in Veterinary and comparative oncology·2016·Department of Veterinary Sciences and Public Health, Italy·View original on PubMed →
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Original publication title: Prognostic factors in canine acute leukaemias: a retrospective study.
- Species:
- dog
Plain-English summary
A dog diagnosed with acute leukemia, a serious blood cancer, typically has a very short survival time of just weeks or months. In this study, researchers found that dogs with a normal neutrophil count (a type of white blood cell) at diagnosis tended to live longer than those with low counts. Additionally, dogs that were anemic (had low red blood cells) often had shorter survival times. The study also suggested that adding a specific chemotherapy drug, cytosine, might help improve survival slightly, but more research is needed to confirm these findings.
People also search for: dog acute leukemia prognosis · dog chemotherapy for leukemia · why is my dog anemic
Abstract
Canine acute leukaemias (ALs) have a poor prognosis, with reported survival times (ST) of only a few weeks or months. Also, clinical studies assessing prognostic factors are lacking. This study aims to retrospectively assess variables that predict ST in dogs with AL, and to identify correlations between outcome and therapeutic protocols. Diagnosis and sub-classification into AL subtypes was made based on haematological findings, morphological assessment and flow cytometric immunophenotyping. Clinical-pathological features of AL subtypes at presentation concurred with those described in the literature. A normal neutrophil count at presentation significantly prolonged ST (P = 0.027). Additionally, there was a trend for anaemic dogs to have shorter survival compared with those without anaemia, and the incorporation of cytosine in the chemotherapy protocol produced a moderate but not significant increase in median ST for dogs with AL. Further prospective studies with standardized treatments are needed to confirm and improve our results.
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Search related cases →Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25623886/