Canine Lymphosarcoma

Links, (Jamie and Boris - our personal experience- survivors)

Links:

Oncolink: Veterinary Oncology

OncoLink: Lymphosarcoma in Dogs
Veterinary Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania
- The Clinical Oncology Service at VHUP discusses lymphosarcoma in dogs.

Canine and Feline Lymphosarcoma - an informative overview from The Veterinary Mall

VetInfo: Lymph Problems
by Michael Richards, DVM

Canine Lymphosarcoma
Informative page by the owner of Hunter, a Golden Retriever who lost her battle with lymphosarcoma.
Discusses diagnosis and treatment in detail.

Hailey's Story - Ongoing success at fighting lymphosarcoma. Information about treatment and nutrition from the perspective of a doberman owner.

Veterinary Information Service: Canine Lymphoma
Overview article

Additional information:

Common Medical Conditions Found in Bloodhounds
By Dr. John Hamil, DVM

Guide to Congenital and Heritable Disorders in Dogs (pdf format) (html) - an important resource prepared by The Association of Veterinarians for Animal Rights, AVAR .

Caring for Pets with Cancer
College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Tennessee

Animal Tumour Registry: Introduction
Detailed information, comprehensive bibliographies of research articles, images.
Currently (7/18/98) under construction.

My personal experience with this disease:

Jamie and Boris, German Shorthaired Pointers, were survivors  They were treated at a private specialty referral clinic. of Lymphosarcoma.  This father and son pair were diagnosed within one week of each other when they were five and six years old.

Boris (son) died first, possibly as a result of his many years on Vincristine.   However, the fact is, he had many years of relatively good health.  He would have had only weeks or months at best without chemotherapy.

As I was revising this page I was saddened to read that Jamie was still "chugging along." He did however reach the grand old age of 13 1/2. His poor hips finally gave out completely, but he remained in remission from his cancer. Boris survived to age 11 years, 10 months. He was off of chemo for about the last two years of his life. Their treatment lasted five years.  

When I originally wrote the account below, Jamie and Boris,  had been on chemotherapy for more than four years:

Lymphosarcoma is kept in remission by chemotherapy. Jamie got doxyrubicin drug once, but he has a bad heart and could not have it again. He got cytoxin, vincristine, methotrexate, vincristine in rotation every four weeks. The vincristine is the one that caused (my dogs) the worst side effects. He also got prednisonedaily as part of his treatment. .

After his initial induction, Boris got  IV vincristine every three weeks, and the oral drug Leukeran every other day. On alternate days he got prednisone.

Jamie started to go out of remission once, but we got it back under control by returning to the beginning of the program for about two weeks,  Jamie became too ill to continue weekly chemo.  He was at this point nine years old, so after two weeks of intensive therapy I  decided he would have to go back to once a month.

Short term side effects:
The side effects depend on which drug is used--a number of different drugs are used. The main problem I saw (after the drug was give) was gastrointestinal upset and anorexia. This usually occured about 36 hours after the chemo is administered and lasted from 12 hours to 36 hours. After this the dogs recovered.  I would then work to get their weights back to normal before the next treatment.

During his therapy Boris became very thin . I had trouble keeping him at a normal weight. Jamie did pretty well throughout his treatment.  Vincristine was the worst drug for him. We finally decided to lower his dosage somewhat. I  always fed a high  calorie meal right before we went for the chemo--canned food mixed with the soaked dry food. Both dogs were (and are)on a premium food.  Jamie eats a maintenance ration. Boris (who is now in good condition) eats performance (or puppy) diet mixed with canned cat food (to hide medications). Both dogs had minimal hair loss.  Jamie, my older dog had a fairly thin coat and sort of bald ears, which my vet said was from the prednisone (The hair grew back completely when the chemo was discontinued).

Dogs on prednisone will exhibit the usual side effects of water retention, and loss of bladder control.  After much mopping, medication for cistitis, etc. I finally learned that using a high quality, low salt diet more or less solved this problem.  The food I use is Nature's Recipe, but other foods would probably work as well.
[Note: much research has since been done on nutrition for dogs with this type of cancer. Hill's Prescription Diet now has a diet which may help. See Hailey's Story for more information on this.]

Side effects will be more pronounced in the beginning when the chemo is given frequently. It is helpful to use a  bland diet such as rice and boiled meat for about three days after chemo. Then gradually get the dog back on his usual diet. Chemo drugs attack the intestinal lining  (because it targets fast growing cells) and cause diarrhea and vomiting (one or the other or both). The easy to digest diet can help with this.

I also used "Lomotil" (a prescription anti-diarrheal drug) on a twice daily basis with my older dog - this has helped greatly, so you might ask your vet about it. This drug may have been discontinued.  

Additional factors:  I attempted to keep stress down as much as possible--the dogs didn't (and still do not) go anywhere except to the vet.  The dogs got vitamin supplements including 1000 mg. vitamin C daily.  I have no idea if this helped and make no claims for it, but neither dog had any problems with their veins (which we had been warned might happen) throughout their therapy.

Best of wishes to anyone with a dog who has lymphosarcoma. My hat is off to anyone who undertakes chemo for their dog, as it is a pretty major effort.

Compiled and maintained by Judith Van Noate , Humanities Reference Librarian,
(e-mail - vannoate@email.uncc.edu) , J. Murrey Atkins Library,
UNC-Charlotte, Charlotte, North Carolina, 28223.
Last updated July 10, 2002.

Return to Dogs Connections

9Vetmed /Dogs Connections: Index/ H

Humanites Home