Lymphoma

We see the specialist on the 24th. We'll find out what he says. Meanwhile though, she's just Annabelle Lee the happiest dog in the world. She is bouncing around, has ZERO problems breathing, her glands are not swollen at all. So, I will maintain hope until a specialist smashes it to pieces. And looking at how she's acting, I just don't see that happening.
 
I'm so sorry to hear that Annabelle has lymphoma. I lost Baron (avatar photo) a few months ago to a very rare and virulent form of lymphoma, called hepatocytotropic lymphoma, that killed him in just 8 weeks, even with no holds barred treatment. From what you described though it sounds like Annabelle has the common variety of lymphoma which isn't as aggressive and responds better to treatment, meaning that she can likely have a decent quality of life for six months to a year.

Generally, the treatment consists of steroids plus some variety of what's called the CHOP protocol. CHOP is an acronym for the four chemo drugs that they use. There is also another drug called L-asparaginase that can be used as a rescue or emergency drug to temporarily set the cancer back (on the first use it kills 99%+ of the cancer cells, but each repeated use is less effective, as the survivors of the previous use(s) become increasingly immune). Additionally, if money is no object there are some alternative treatments that involve bone marrow transplants or T-Cell reprogramming (akin to what is being done at the forefront of lymphoma treatment for humans), which are available in a few places in the country.

I was trying to get one of those alternative treatments for Baron as I felt that was his only chance given what I was told about how virulent his variety of lymphoma was, but I found out that they also require the patient to be in "molecular remission" prior to attempting these treatments, which means that in addition to being in clinical remission (i.e. no symptoms) there can be no detectable cancer cells or DNA from cancer cells in the blood. Baron was only in clinical remission for 4 weeks before the cancer he had overwhelmed all the chemo he was getting and caused his liver to fail; so I wasn't able to get the requisite DNA testing done on the cancer cells, or get the logistics of transporting him to Seattle for additional testing and possible treatment finalized, before his time ran out.

If you want to private message me I can give you more details about the treatment options and side effects.
 
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Our vet is fairly sure Bitsy has a kind of lymphoma. At the time, she was 10, and her arthritis precluded serious treatment. We decided to let her enjoy her life. Well, it's three years later, and she's still ruling the roost!! Keep positive!!
 
We know a sheltie with lymphoma, he had chemo and is now on a daily maintenance dosage. He was very, very sick when first diagnosed but came good after the chemo and now is doing really well. I think he was diagnosed about 6mths ago and their vet has given no indication of lifespan - could go on for years but will need the medication.
 
Caro said:
We know a sheltie with lymphoma, he had chemo and is now on a daily maintenance dosage. He was very, very sick when first diagnosed but came good after the chemo and now is doing really well. I think he was diagnosed about 6mths ago and their vet has given no indication of lifespan - could go on for years but will need the medication.
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I got the six months to a year number from the vet oncologist when she was discussing Baron's prognosis and treatment costs with me. She said that if he had the common variety of lymphoma which affects the lymph nodes, that is what I could have reasonably expected from the CHOP plus steroids treatment plan; but because he had hepatocytotropic lymphoma in the liver, which is so rare that all they know about it comes from the study of a tiny number of patients (I subsequently learned from researching online that all they know about it comes from the study of just two dogs who lived only a couple of weeks after diagnosis), she could not give me any idea of how much time she could buy him other than it was likely to be significantly less than what she could do for a patient with lymphoma in the lymph nodes.

It turned out that she was able to buy Baron eight weeks, which was triple the amount of time the two dogs in the only study done had lived.
 
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All of us with cancer pups are thinking of you. It is a very stressful time for all involved.
Here is to Annabelle being as happy as possible for as long as possible!
 
MissyGallant said:
We see the specialist on the 24th. We'll find out what he says. Meanwhile though, she's just Annabelle Lee the happiest dog in the world. She is bouncing around, has ZERO problems breathing, her glands are not swollen at all. So, I will maintain hope until a specialist smashes it to pieces. And looking at how she's acting, I just don't see that happening.
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Good luck yo you and Sandstorm and I are hoping good news for Annabelle
 
I am going to give the latest update on this. My ordinary vet did not do a pathology to prove it was lymphoma vs some other thing. So, the specialist took her off the steroids so a pathology can be done if the lymph nodes swell back up. Everything was great for a few weeks. They swelled back up over the weekend.

Unfortunately, chemo just is not in our budget right now. My company was recently purchased and there is far too much "We don't know". So, we are paying off as many bills as we can to be prepared if I lose my job. I also have a hospital bill for me that hit the 6 grand deductible we have. So, it looks like I will be saying Goodbye to my sweet Annabelle soon. And right now, I'm just trying to ignore everything and pretend that life is better than it really is.
 
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