How to Treat Canine Lymphoma

Canine lymphoma is a malignant cancer that frequently strikes dogs of middle age. Any breed can contract it, but it seems that Golden Retrievers tend to develop it more than others. If you're the owner of a middle aged dog, particularly a Golden Retriever, you may be interested in knowing what the treatment options are should your dog develop this type of cancer.

Chemotherapy is highly effective in treating canine lymphoma. Most effective are multi-agent chemotherapy regimens that employ a combination of drugs. There has been more success with this regimen than with treatment using only a single drug.

Eighty percent of dogs that receive multi-agent chemotherapy regimens go into a year-long remission. While it's possible for them to experience a second remission, it's typically not as long as the first one. As some of the cancer cells will develop a resistance to the first round of drugs used, there will be a need to find the right regimen of drugs for the second remission to work. This is done by simple trial and error. It should be noted that even though the multi-agent regimen increases the dog's life span, they are more expensive and toxic than single drug regimens.

How successful the chemotherapy treatment is depends on where the tumor is located, what stage the cancer is in, and how healthy the dog is when the cancer is diagnosed. Lymphoma of the bone marrow or the thymus decrease chances for a remission. Dogs that aren't exhibiting any signs such as diarrhea and vomiting and seem to feel well at the initial diagnosis seem to respond better to chemotherapy. Side effects of chemotherapy in dogs are usually minimal and mild. These may include loss of appetite, diarrhea, vomiting and low blood cell count.

Prednisone, a type of corticosteroid, can provide up to 2 to 3 months remission. This method is used when the dog isn't a good candidate for chemotherapy or the owner can't afford the expense of it. This basically makes the dog's remaining time more comfortable.

While one university offers canine bone marrow transplant, this is a highly expensive procedure. It offers a 30 percent cure rate so far. They're hoping to make that higher in the future.

Summary

Canine lymphoma seems to typically affect middle aged dogs but is not as hopeless as it used to be when you choose the proper treatment.

Want to learn more about dog lymphoma? On CanineLymphoma.Net you can find articles about dog lymphoma dealing with the main symptoms of dog lymphoma, treatment of dog lymphoma and about the effects of chemotherapy on dogs.

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