Roxy, A Canine Cancer Success Story!!!

Roxy is a 4 ½ year old female spayed small breed dog that presented to the Oncology Service for the first time on 4/21/21 for evaluation of a solitary right cranial pulmonary mass that was diagnosed on thoracic radiographs on 3/21/21 while she was being evaluated for coughing. An abdominal ultrasound was performed, which was normal, and cytology of the mass was performed and consistent with carcinoma. A chest CT was then performed with the goal of evaluating if Roxy was a good surgical candidate, but it unfortunately revealed multiple pulmonary nodules that were not visualized on radiographs. She was then diagnosed with metastatic pulmonary carcinoma and started on chemotherapy. 

Roxy was treated with a combination of carboplatin and gemcitabine chemotherapy. She received a total of 8 cycles of chemotherapy and her total protocol duration time was 6 months. She did not experience any side effects from chemotherapy and her quality of life was excellent while undergoing treatment. She had thoracic radiographs performed prior to cycles #4 and #8, and both showed no evidence of cancer, which means she entered complete remission with chemotherapy. She was then transitioned to maintenance oral chemotherapy and was still in complete remission on 10/13/21 when she had radiographs last performed. Thanks to chemotherapy, she has been alive for 7 months after a diagnosis of metastatic pulmonary cancer. Without chemotherapy, her expected survival time was less than 3 months.

In summary, dogs with pulmonary carcinoma can have positive outcomes if treated appropriately and if no negative prognostic factors are identified. The presence of one or more identified negative prognostic factors can negatively affect prognosis. Although surgery is the mainstay treatment for this type of cancer, the addition of chemotherapy in efforts to prolong survival time in pets with identified negative prognostic factors can be helpful. For dogs that are not good surgical candidates, chemotherapy is a palliative option that can be pursued as in Roxy’s case.

A Case of Canine Metastatic Pulmonary Carcinoma

Irene Vazquez, DVM, MS, DACVIM (Oncology)

Irene.Vazquez@vca.com

Oncology Services

Monday-Thursday

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