Post by suethejam on May 18, 2012 14:40:14 GMT
After a fortnight of tests and scans, we have found out that Lou's soft palate lymphoma tumour is a very unusual presentation of the disease (bad) but is is localised in her mouth/throat (good) . For that reason, the oncologist thinks that it is well worth treating - lymphoma cells are apparently very sensitive to chemotherapy. They also think that radiotherapy will help to shrink the tumour, so we'll try that as well.
The vets are very positive about the lack of side-effects from both chemotherapy (much lower dose than humans) and from radiotherapy but we must accept that the most we can hope for is a remission; when the disease relapses then we can try different combinations of drugs to induce remission again but eventually the cancer will become resistant to treatment and that will that. The average survival, with treatment, is 10 months (less than a fortnight untreated!).
We've decided to try the first treatment cycle and she how she gets on - 10% of dogs don't respond - if she's in that group then she'll be gone in a few weeks. If she does respond and her quality of life is maintained, then we will carry on.
Of course it's an eye-watering cost but she is insured so we're ok for now.
Lou had her first dose of chemotherapy yesterday - we were worried because she seemed really miserable in the evening and this morning, but she's really perked up this afternoon - we should know whether she's going to respond within 10 days or so - keep your fingers crossed...
The vets are very positive about the lack of side-effects from both chemotherapy (much lower dose than humans) and from radiotherapy but we must accept that the most we can hope for is a remission; when the disease relapses then we can try different combinations of drugs to induce remission again but eventually the cancer will become resistant to treatment and that will that. The average survival, with treatment, is 10 months (less than a fortnight untreated!).
We've decided to try the first treatment cycle and she how she gets on - 10% of dogs don't respond - if she's in that group then she'll be gone in a few weeks. If she does respond and her quality of life is maintained, then we will carry on.
Of course it's an eye-watering cost but she is insured so we're ok for now.
Lou had her first dose of chemotherapy yesterday - we were worried because she seemed really miserable in the evening and this morning, but she's really perked up this afternoon - we should know whether she's going to respond within 10 days or so - keep your fingers crossed...
