Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Toxicity and survival in cats with oral cancer after combined
By Marconato, Laura et al.·Published in Veterinary and comparative oncology·2020·Centro Oncologico Veterinario, Italy·View original on PubMed →
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Original publication title: Toxicity and outcome in cats with oral squamous cell carcinoma after accelerated hypofractionated radiotherapy and concurrent systemic treatment.
- Species:
- cat
Plain-English summary
A group of 51 cats with oral squamous cell carcinoma (a type of mouth cancer) underwent treatment to see if combining radiation therapy with medication would help. Some cats received just medication, while others got both medication and radiation. The cats that had radiation lived longer without their cancer worsening—about 179 days compared to just 30 days for those who only had medication. However, nearly 30% of the cats that received radiation experienced severe side effects. Due to the high risk of toxicity and overall poor outcomes, this treatment approach is not recommended for cats with this type of cancer.
People also search for: cat oral cancer treatment · squamous cell carcinoma in cats · radiation therapy side effects in cats
Abstract
Recently, a multimodal approach to oral squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) in cats, combining medical treatment and accelerated radiation therapy, showed a substantial outcome improvement in a small pilot study. Herein we retrospectively review 51 cats with unresectable, histologically confirmed oral SCC and a complete initial staging work-up: cats in group A (n = 24) received medical anti-angiogenic treatment consisting of bleomycin, piroxicam and thalidomide, cats in group B (n = 27) received the anti-angiogenic treatment and concurrent accelerated hypofractionated radiation therapy with 48Gy delivered in 10 fractions. Overall median progression-free interval (PFI) was poor with 70 days (95% CI: 48;93). In the irradiated cats (group B), however, PFI was significantly longer with 179 days (95% CI: 58;301) days, vs 30 days (95% CI: 23;38) in medically only treated cats (P < .001). Overall median overall survival (OS) was 89 days (95% CI: 55;124), again significantly longer in the irradiated cats (group B) with 136 (95% CI: 40;233) vs 38 days (95% CI: 23;54) (P < .001). In 8 of the 27 (29.6%) cats in group B, however, severe toxicity (grade 3) occurred. Neither onset nor severity of toxicity could be associated with any of the tested variables, including anatomic site, tumour size, clinical stage and duration of neoadjuvant medical treatment. Given the potential severe acute effects and the impact on quality of life after chemo-radiotherapy, owners must be clearly informed about the risks of treatment. With the overall poor outcome and high occurrence of acute toxicity, we cannot recommend the use of this accelerated radiation protocol combined with anti-angiogenic therapy for oral SCC in cats.
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Search related cases →Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31756259/