Chemo For Dogs With Hemangiosarcoma

But turkey tail may really help extend your dog s survival time.
Chemo for dogs with hemangiosarcoma. A 2012 study at university of pennsylvania treated hemangiosarcoma dogs with i m yunity an extract of polysaccharopeptide psp from turkey tail mushrooms. What are the side effects of chemotherapy in dogs. Continuous oral administration of low dose chemotherapy ldc has been suggested as an alternative to conventional chemotherapy protocols. Dogs with internal organ involvement who are treated with surgery alone live an average of only 2 months.
Dogs treated with surgery alone only lived on 19 to 65 days. Dogs diagnosed with a type of cancer called hemangiosarcoma showed improved survival rates when treated with a new drug. Dogs who do not have identifiable metastasis at the time of surgery and who are treated with chemotherapy live a median of 6 to 10 months. In fact 75 to 80 percent of dogs have no side effects she said.
It is estimated that this type of cancer accounts for 5 7 of all tumors seen in dogs. In 2015 a study with 208 dogs compared the survival times of treating splenic hemangiosarcoma in dogs through chemotherapy alone versus surgery combined with two types of chemotherapy the. This is one of the largest accomplishments in 30 years according to study. Considering the lifetime risk of cancer for dogs is between 1 in 2 and 1 in 3 we can calculate that 1 5 to 2 5 million of the 72 million pet dogs in the united states today will get hemangiosarcoma and succumb.
I mentioned earlier the very short survival times for dogs with hemangiosarcoma even with surgery and chemotherapy. At present conventional adjuvant chemotherapy provides only a modest survival benefit for treated dogs. This cancer grows from the walls of blood vessels and is often found in the spleen although sometimes can occur in the liver heart eye skin and other sites in the body. For example one study published in 1991 found that dogs with splenic hemangiosarcoma who were treated with chemotherapy lived on an average of 271 days.
When present typical side effects include. Side effects for dogs are milder and generally last for a shorter period of time than for humans receiving chemotherapy because dogs are given less aggressive treatment intile said. Hemangiosarcoma in the dog tends to resist the effects of chemotherapy generally although there are chemo protocols that exist to try to increase lifespan. This off and on schedule is intended to avoid overdose as it can result in liver damage.
Hemangiosarcoma is rarely curable and long term prognosis for dogs with hemangiosarcoma is poor.