Dog with fibrosarcoma in chest - looking for advice

Hello

I have a dog that has got cancer and I have some questions for you. I really hope someone will replay to it because I really don't have anyone else to ask.

My dog is a female Howavart, 6 years old, and she has cancer in her chest. The cancer type is called fibrosarcoma.

I discovered it in December 2008 and the tumor (a very big one) was removed from her chest in January. It came from the structure around the lung (pleurae?) and had compressed almost all of her left lung so she had problems to breath, although it had not infected the lung. They also removed about 2 inch each of two ribs since the tumor had grown into them. Since then she has been treated with chemotherapy (carboplatin) once every three weeks. After the surgery she got much better, after one week she was running and playing in ways she had not done for a long time.

But unfortunately the last weeks she has gotten worse again. She doesn't breathe as good as before and last time we were at the veterinarian they took x-ray pictures of her chest. They show that she has a new tumor :(  

I asked the veterinarian what we could do. Her answer was 'I don't think we should do anything'. She means that a second surgery will be more difficult than the first time and that there is no point in trying again. And she doesn't think chemotherapy or anything else will work either. The dog will die and there is nothing to do.

I did not like what she told me. I really don't want to give up. I like to try another surgery. And then maybe some other kind of chemotherapy, possible with higher doses than before, or maybe radiation therapy. My dog has been so happy and full of life since the surgery so I really want to try and treat the tumor again.

Worth noting is that I live in Sweden, and here there are not many veterinarian clinics that can do this kind of surgery (since it is in the dogs chest). There are also very few clinics that do chemotherapy and even fewer (just two) that do radiation therapy. The common opinion here is that when a dog gets cancer we don't treat it, we just let the dog die. I think that sucks. What I have heard it is much more common in outer countries, especially in USA, to try and treat cancer.

The few times a dog gets chemotherapy her in Sweden the goal (according to my veterinarian) is to extend its life for a little while. It is not to cure the cancer. Thus the dogs get much smaller doses of the drugs compared to humans. I think that is strange way of thinking. I'm not sure that is the case in USA?

My question for you is, what do you think I should do? What would you have done if the cancer came back after a surgery?

I'm also interested to know if anyone here has a dog with this kind of cancer (fibrosarcoma) in the chest and what kind of treatment that dog gets?

I have thought of trying some alternative cancer treatments but have not done that yet. I have read about 'Essiac' and thinking of trying it. Has anyone here tried it for your dog?

Finally I also wonder if anyone here knows about a veterinarian or clinic with good knowledge of cancer treatment in USA, Europe or anywhere else that I could contact and ask questions?  I feel kind of desperate when there are so few veterinarians here in Sweden that knows anything about cancer, and that the ones I have talked with think my dog is a hopeless case. If I could get in contact with a veterinarian that really knows about cancer maybe he could recommend my dog a different treatment. At least that is what I hope.

Regards,

I am so sorry to hear about your dog's cancer and the lack of treatment for it in Sweden.  I don't have any specific information for you (my Westie has bladder cancer and is being treated locally) but I do know that there are many cancer centers in the US that are affiliated with the major Vet hospitals.  Some of them have on-line or phone consultations.  Your search engine should be able to find them for you.  There is also a lot of information about treating cancer in dogs in this forum.  If you read through the posts you may find some other references that will help you.  A lot of people are using a product call N-tense (graviola) by Rain Forest and K9 immunity to help treat their dogs.  I haven't tried these yet but may do so soon.

Good luck finding help for your precious dog!

Sue

Thanks for your replies! It doesn't seem that I can get K9Immunity to be shipped to Sweden but I think N-tense can and I think I will try that.

 If anyone knows a link to a veterinarian with good knowlede of cancer treatments and that can give on-line consultation please post it here.

 Any other ideas or comments are very welcome!

Hi,

I just read your post.  My 10 year old Golden Retriever had a giant 12 X 12 X 14 cm fibrocarcoma removed from her chest 5 weeks ago.  There are still microscopic cells left which will multiply over time.  The tumor was a grade 2.  Radiation is not an option because the specialists are afraid of damage to the lungs.  We just started this week the metronomic treatment.  It's a low dose of chemo (cyclo something - I can find out) and piroxycam which is an arthritis medicine.  They are supposed to work together to help stop the growth of the cells.  This medicine is oral and made for humans, but adjusted for their weight.  The dosage of chemo is 20% of the normal dose.  The reason is because if the blood cell count gets too low due to the bone marrow suppression (happens in humans all the time - happened to me in May because I was on chemo too).  Anyway, dogs can not get platelet transfers because the platelets don't live outside the body.  So, they can't take any chances of this happening because they could actually die from this.

Molly has had 2 doses of this medicine and seems to be doing very good.  She will need weekly blood work to check the blood counts, but so far so good.

Look up the metronomic study and see if you can talk to your vet about it.

Let me know if I can answer any questions.

On 4/11/2009 jn2003 wrote:

Hello

 

I have a dog that has got cancer and I have some questions for you. I really hope someone will replay to it because I really don't have anyone else to ask.

 

My dog is a female Howavart, 6 years old, and she has cancer in her chest. The cancer type is called fibrosarcoma.

 

I discovered it in December 2008 and the tumor (a very big one) was removed from her chest in January. It came from the structure around the lung (pleurae?) and had compressed almost all of her left lung so she had problems to breath, although it had not infected the lung. They also removed about 2 inch each of two ribs since the tumor had grown into them. Since then she has been treated with chemotherapy (carboplatin) once every three weeks. After the surgery she got much better, after one week she was running and playing in ways she had not done for a long time.

 

But unfortunately the last weeks she has gotten worse again. She doesn't breathe as good as before and last time we were at the veterinarian they took x-ray pictures of her chest. They show that she has a new tumor :(  

 

I asked the veterinarian what we could do. Her answer was 'I don't think we should do anything'. She means that a second surgery will be more difficult than the first time and that there is no point in trying again. And she doesn't think chemotherapy or anything else will work either. The dog will die and there is nothing to do.

 

I did not like what she told me. I really don't want to give up. I like to try another surgery. And then maybe some other kind of chemotherapy, possible with higher doses than before, or maybe radiation therapy. My dog has been so happy and full of life since the surgery so I really want to try and treat the tumor again.

 

Worth noting is that I live in Sweden, and here there are not many veterinarian clinics that can do this kind of surgery (since it is in the dogs chest). There are also very few clinics that do chemotherapy and even fewer (just two) that do radiation therapy. The common opinion here is that when a dog gets cancer we don't treat it, we just let the dog die. I think that sucks. What I have heard it is much more common in outer countries, especially in USA, to try and treat cancer.

 

The few times a dog gets chemotherapy her in Sweden the goal (according to my veterinarian) is to extend its life for a little while. It is not to cure the cancer. Thus the dogs get much smaller doses of the drugs compared to humans. I think that is strange way of thinking. I'm not sure that is the case in USA?

 

 

My question for you is, what do you think I should do? What would you have done if the cancer came back after a surgery?

 

I'm also interested to know if anyone here has a dog with this kind of cancer (fibrosarcoma) in the chest and what kind of treatment that dog gets?

 

I have thought of trying some alternative cancer treatments but have not done that yet. I have read about 'Essiac' and thinking of trying it. Has anyone here tried it for your dog?

 

Finally I also wonder if anyone here knows about a veterinarian or clinic with good knowledge of cancer treatment in USA, Europe or anywhere else that I could contact and ask questions?  I feel kind of desperate when there are so few veterinarians here in Sweden that knows anything about cancer, and that the ones I have talked with think my dog is a hopeless case. If I could get in contact with a veterinarian that really knows about cancer maybe he could recommend my dog a different treatment. At least that is what I hope.

 

Regards,

Johan