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Lymphoma and chemotherapy protocol questions
I didn't want to say anything yesterday because the whole my situation
was so very jubilant and I wanted to try to be happy and enjoy the
moment. Today has found me having to put my feet back on solid ground
and face a painful reality. One of my feral cats (he lives indoors
only), has been diagnosed with Lymphoma. I don't have the report
back yet, so I can't be more specific. The x ray showed a very large
tumor that has taken up a lot of the area on his side and is probably
going to interfere with his intestines pretty soon. After consulting
with an oncologist, my vet called and we talked about options. We
decided that if I am going to take action, that we should try
chemotherapy first. I know it is not a cure, but I want to buy Ivan at
least a little time, keep him comfortable, and give him a lot of special
attention and extra love. At this point he is acting normally, with a
very good appetite and no other problems other than a sudden weight loss
which is what alerted me that he needed to be seen by a vet.
What I am looking for here, and I want to be VERY specific, are
experiences from those of you that have treated a cat with Lymphoma
using chemotherapy. I have found plenty of information on the web about
Lymphoma that I am reviewing, but I also want first hand experiences. I
would like to know how far was the cancer advanced, what type of
protocol did the vet use, how did the cat feel, did the tumor shrink,
and if so how soon was it noticably smaller, how long did the cat live
after treatment, etc. Anything else anyone would advice me?
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-Here's what I can tell you based solely on my research and
experiences with Alex. Lymphoma is one of the most treatable forms of
cancer in felines- Alex was given a 70-80% chance of remission by his
oncologist, and he achieved it. Lymphoma tends to respond *very*
quickly to chemotherapy- in rare circumstances, *too* quickly, where
the tumors break up so suddenly that they poison the cat's sytem, so
be aware of that. With chemotherapy after diagnosis of lymphoma, cats generally survive
an average of about 6-10 months, although that number is very
subjective and dependent on the protocols used. Without chemo and
with just steroids (typically prednisone), cats with lymphoma average
about 2-3 months (again, a very rough timeframe). The biggest caution in starting steroid treatment without deciding
whether or not to do chemo is that the chemo may be less effective if
the steroids are started without conjunctive chemotherapy. Ideally,
both chemo and steroid treatment should begin at the same time if you
decide to go ahead with chemo. The most effective chemotherapy protocols for treatment of lymphoma
in cats seem to be multi-drug protocols. Alex is treated with four
drugs, three of which are chemotherapeutic agents. His treatment ran
in four-week cycles for the first eight months. The first week, he
got injections of L-Asparaginase and Vincristine at his oncologist's
office, with daily prednisone pilling. The second through fourth
weeks, he got Vincristine injections once a week at my regular vets'
office, with Cytoxan tablets the day of the injection and the day
following the injection, plus daily prednisone. In July, Alex was
diagnosed as being in remission and his schedule was cut back to a
bi-weekly schedule. (I am concerned at the moment that he may be
coming out of remission due to what I'm seeing in the litterbox, and
next week when he goes to his oncologist, I'll ask them what they
think. My regular vets say that his lymph nodes feel good, but they
can't get a good feel of his intestines because he tenses up when
they try to palpate them and he is a strong boy, despite having lost
tremendous amounts of weight during his saga [he went from eighteen
pounds to less than eight pounds at his worst, although he is now
back up to about 11-12 pounds].)
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