# Hemangiosarcoma Cancer Treatment



## Jax08 (Feb 13, 2009)

I wish I had seen this when Jax was diagnosed. Why do more vets not know of this when it was published in 2017?

https://www.veterinarypracticenews....LhLQeXjhvpD7cvR4FD38Wr6rzRBd0RoJoXIC4tWeouXUA



> University of Minnesota develops cancer drug that helps dogs with hemangiosarcoma
> The results from the trial not only benefits dogs with this particular form of cancer, but may be applicable to humans too
> February 14, 2017
> By Veterinary Practice News Editors
> ...


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## WIBackpacker (Jan 9, 2014)

Was that article linked from the (new) clinical trial I just got an email about, this afternoon? 

Like you I’m surprised that the above wasn’t more widely circulated...  

Link to the new clinical study here: AKC Canine Health Foundation


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## Jax08 (Feb 13, 2009)

No! It was not! A friend who just lost her girl to HSA posted it.


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## WIBackpacker (Jan 9, 2014)

Ok. &#55357;&#56852;


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## Jax08 (Feb 13, 2009)

I'm not sure why you responded that way? Especially since I liked your post?

I wonder why this stuff is not more widely shared. My girl wasn't a candidate, the vet thinks it was in her liver, but hers certainly was. But with both of ours, by the time they were diagnosed it was to late  They need to find a way to do early testing and put it in a wellness panel.


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## WIBackpacker (Jan 9, 2014)

Oh I agree. My disappointment isn’t directed at you or anyone who helps share good info, it’s difficult enough to find science buried in the swamp of internet rumor. 

I read the link about the new study earlier today, and I (often) wish that when these press releases are blasted out to such large networks (ex: the email I got from GSDCA/AKC), the authors would include relevant footnotes to other current info - like the Minnesota study you linked above. I’m glad you posted that info. I’m surprised that it hasn’t been referenced more often by others.


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## Jax08 (Feb 13, 2009)

It's disappointing when so many of our dogs are being lost to it. What ever happened to the study from Tufts that was looking for markers for early diagnosis? I remember one dog was tested, came back with the markers and was lost within weeks so there was some accuracy to it. That was several years ago.


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## anagram (Apr 24, 2017)

"by the time they were diagnosed it was to late  They need to find a way to do early testing and put it in a wellness panel."

This a thousand times over. A treatment is good news but when the diagnosis is too late it is of no use


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## tc68 (May 31, 2006)

Jax08 said:


> I'm not sure why you responded that way? Especially since I liked your post?
> 
> I wonder why this stuff is not more widely shared. My girl wasn't a candidate, the vet thinks it was in her liver, but hers certainly was. But with both of ours, by the time they were diagnosed it was to late  They need to find a way to do early testing and put it in a wellness panel.


Mine was also the liver and he was diagnosed and gone within a couple months in 2017 so the treatment wasn't available then probably.


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## Jax08 (Feb 13, 2009)

tc68 said:


> Mine was also the liver and he was diagnosed and gone within a couple months in 2017 so the treatment wasn't available then probably.


Jax was a month from the day she stopped eating to when I lost her. Looking back, she probably didn't feel good for a long time but I thought she was just tired of fighting Seger to get to the door when I got home and I always went to find her. She looked and acted fine until she didn't. Then the bloodwork came back crazy so my vet was looking at many options. it took 3 rounds of bloodwork to realize the issue was in her liver and it had to be hemangio. This cancer is evil. :crying:


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## Magwart (Jul 8, 2012)

That's so much for sharing this! I'd love to see a controlled trial comparing this new protocol to the new custom immunotherapy made from the spleen removed from the dog. I think we're entering a new era of cancer treatment in dogs.

FWIW, my dog's vet oncologist told me that there's an emerging view in their field that some breeds like GSDs should get an annual ultrasound when they reach "senior" status (around 7-8)...specifically to look for cancers like hemangio. It's "wellness" so insurance isn't going to cover the screening in a dog believed to be healthy. I think our last one was about $400-500 performed by a specialist. Maybe if a generalist vet happened own an ultrasound, it might be cheaper.

It came up when we were in for a 3-month re-check for my dog's melanoma to make sure it hadn't spread. I asked why they'd done an ultrasound at the first re-check, and then switched to xrays at the second one. She said one (negative) ultrasound made sense at his age before switching to cheaper xrays at the next 3-month re-check, due to his breed, as the ultrasound picks it up in places the xray doesn't. Specifically, they got a good look at the spleen with the ultrasound. My understanding is that hemangio almost always starts there before spreading to the liver, lungs, everywhere else, so if you can get it while it's still at the spleen, you can get the dog more time. My last one who died of hemangio already had it in the liver too, by the time she collapsed and showed her first symptom. She'd had an annual physical a few weeks before with perfect bloodwork--there was no hint of anything wrong, other than sleeping more...but with an older dog, that doesn't feel unusual.


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## tc68 (May 31, 2006)

Jax08 said:


> Jax was a month from the day she stopped eating to when I lost her. Looking back, she probably didn't feel good for a long time but I thought she was just tired of fighting Seger to get to the door when I got home and I always went to find her. She looked and acted fine until she didn't. Then the bloodwork came back crazy so my vet was looking at many options. it took 3 rounds of bloodwork to realize the issue was in her liver and it had to be hemangio. This cancer is evil. :crying:


Mine was diagnosed in October 2017 and I had to put him down a week before X'mas 2 months later. I was told that he had a few months...probably sometime around end of January to February. I would've had to miss a family member's wedding to stay home with the dog. Just like you...looking back, he probably had it sometime around the beginning of summer. Every summer since he was born, his appetite would decrease and then pick back up when it got cooler. That year it was a little worse than usual, but I thought maybe it's just because he was older. My fault. Poor dog was probably already in pain. Then in September he started vomiting more often than usual. That's when I took him to the emergency instead of his primary care vet. Within a few days, he saw the oncologist and had tests done and was diagnosed. I cried every day and night for the next 2 months. It progressively got worse. Vomited often. He started fecal incontinence. Pooped when he was sleeping. Pooping in the middle of eating a meal. Pooped on car rides. His favorite food: boiled chicken was no longer that enticing. I slept (3 to 4 hours) on the floor with him in the family room every night, crying myself to sleep. Some nights waking up to clean up vomit or poop. He was my first dog so I didn't know when the "right time" was. Someone gave me the best advice which was, "when he has more bad days than good days," then it may be time. The family got together and picked a day and that was it. Last time I cried was the day I picked up his ashes. It was just a horrible ending to a great life. I'm always second guessing...like maybe if I caught it earlier, they could've cut off that part of the liver and I could've had him for another year or so. I still think about him literally every day. Anyway.


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## bantam7 (Jul 6, 2019)

What were your dogs' ages when you lost them to the disease?

A "radical" solution presented by Dr. Ian Dunbar for breeding against any number of un-screenable diseases in purebreds + ensuring heritable longevity is to wait until a male is a healthy 10 years old to breed him (or 7, 12, whatever age you'd be happy with your progeny living to). Seems no good to breed a stud when he's the hot thing at 3 years old when he could be dead just a few years later and pass whatever susceptibility onto his offspring. Sperm is still plenty good at 10, per one Mastiff breeder who used a stud at that age and got a nice litter of 9 pups.


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## Jax08 (Feb 13, 2009)

This article is 2 years old but I just read another one a couple of weeks ago that linked Bartonella infections with hemangiosarcoma.









AKC-CHF Grant funds New CVM Bartonella Research Project - NC State Veterinary Medicine


The new study will dive deeper into evidence suggesting that Bartonella infections contribute to hemangiosarcoma development. That information could lead to improved diagnosis and treatment of the cancer, which occurs most often in several popular canine breeds...




cvm.ncsu.edu





This article theorizes the bacteria is "hiding" in the tissue of animals but the correlation seems to be clearly there.








Molecular prevalence of Bartonella, Babesia, and hemotropic Mycoplasma species in dogs with hemangiosarcoma from across the United States


Hemangiosarcoma (HSA), a locally invasive and highly metastatic endothelial cell neoplasm, accounts for two-thirds of all cardiac and splenic neoplasms in dogs. Bartonella spp. infection has been reported in association with neoplastic and non-neoplastic vasoproliferative lesions in animals and...




journals.plos.org





Here is the article I read a few weeks ago








Bartonella Bacteria Found in Hemangiosarcoma Tumors from Dogs - NC State Veterinary Medicine


Researchers find more evidence of a possible connection between persistent bacterial infection and blood vessel cancer in dogs.




cvm.ncsu.edu


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## buddyr93 (Sep 26, 2017)

We lost our 10 yr old female from this. Ended up having to put her to sleep by the time it was finally figured out. Worst part is she started showing symptoms almost a year before. We initially thought it was Cushing's. Had every test (or so we thought) done, ultrasound, and saw an internist. No one could find any underlying cause. At least now we have a better idea of what to look for and hopefully advanced testing will be available. It's just a horrible thing.


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## Jax08 (Feb 13, 2009)

Advanced testing is not available. I lost Jax just 2 years ago. This cancer seems to have various ways of presenting, depending on what organ it is affecting. I can look back and see a change in behavior months before she stopped eating that I just attributed to being a senior.  

It would be great if a test came from this information for Bartonella infection if that's determined to be a cause.


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