Canine Lymphoma (Dog"s Cancer)

Canine Lymphoma

This article will discuss generally about dog’s cancer that also known as Canine Lymphoma. This dog’s cancer (also called lymphosarcoma) is the most common type of cancer to affect dogs. It is a condition in which cancer cells can grow anywhere there is lymph tissue. Therefore, the cancer cells can grow in almost any organ in your dog’s body and will eventually cause one of them to fail.

Canine Lymphoma represents a common neoplasia of dogs affecting the entire lymphatic system including the spleen, thymus and liver. Its may occur in dogs of any age but is seen more frequently in dogs over 5 years of age. One in four dogs will get cancer at some time in their lives. This statistic appears to be conservative compared to the cancer incidence in ferrets and cats.

This dog’s cancer mostly infected in American dogs, and fortunately, it is very treatable. It is about 50% of dogs with canine lymphoma can be put into remission. Most lymphomas respond very well to modern therapy, by using a combination of chemotherapy (sometimes radiation, although not very often).

Treatment for canine lymphoma is relatively effective, but can also get expensive. Chemotherapy is a preferred method of treatment for canine lymphoma. Most dogs that undergo this treatment go into remission. Dogs that have one remission can usually go into remission a second time. However, the second remission usually lasts half as long as the first. Most dogs undergoing treatment for canine lymphoma can survive one to two more years after diagnosis. The chemotherapy drugs can be given orally at home or as an injection at the vet’s office. Dogs that are in stage 5 of canine lymphoma, the stage where bone marrow is affected, don’t respond well to chemotherapy drugs.

Canine Lymphoma

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Canine Lymphoma

There are several CHOP-L protocols for Canine Lymphoma published for use, including the Wisconsin-Madison protocol, AMC protocol and VELCAP (Moore 2001). Although there are some differences among them in terms of scheduling, dosages and addition of other chemotherapeutics, the differences are minor and the protocols are considered to be equally effective.

When deciding on what protocol to use for initial treatment, it is important to take into account prognostic factors, including anatomic location, stage, grade, substage, immunophenotype and presence of hypercalcemia or a mediastinal mass. Most “average” dogs (Stage II-IVa B-cell intermediate to high-grade lymphoma) will benefit from a CHOP-L type of protocol.

It has not been documented whether dogs with negative prognostic factors (i.e., substage b) will have the same remission duration with a short-term protocol compared to “average” dogs with lymphoma. These dogs may be more effectively treated with protocols that include a maintenance phase. Those with T-cell lymphoma or certain anatomic locations (cutaneous or gastrointestinal) may benefit from the use of protocols such as MOPP as a first-line treatment.

The length of treatment with a rescue protocol is not standard. In our clinic, most rescue protocols are administered for no less than six months but no more than a year, providing that the patient continues to respond.

Canine Lymphoma

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