Disease Description: A cancer arising from the cells of the bones.

Inherit Mode: -

Disease Symptom: They are highly metastatic, predominantly to the lungs with a lower frequency of spread to distant bones, lymph nodes and other soft tissues. Affected dogs suffer from lameness or in some cases with a pathologic fracture of the affected bone.

Disease Cause: -

Disease Diagnose: Diagnosis is based on physical examination, radiography of the lesion and fine needle biopsy performed in order to identify the type of tumor.

Treat Method: Treatment includes: surgery (limb amputation or limb-sparing surgery), radiotherapy and chemotherapy. Amputation is a first-line procedure, which increases survival, brings pain relief, thereby delays euthanasia. It completely removes the primary tumor, decreases the risk of postoperative complications, shortens the time of anesthesia and decreases the expense in comparison with the limb-sparing procedure. However, limb-sparing procedures are receiving growing popularity. The bone can be reconstructed with an endoprothesis (metal implant) or cortical allograft. Limb function is preserved in over 80 % of dogs following limb-sparing surgery, however, complications such as infections (in 30–50 % of patients) or implant failure (20–40 %) are relatively common. Moreover, tumor recurrence appears in 15–25 % of cases. As a result this technique is recommended for dogs with compromising neurologic or orthopedic problems, or it can be favorable for owners who refuse to perform limb amputation. In the absence of chemotherapy, the average survival time in dogs receiving amputation alone is approximately 19 weeks. Dogs treated with adjunctive therapy had a prolonged median survival time (307 days) in comparison to those after surgery alone. Dogs with appendicular OSA treated with cisplatin as an adjuvant therapy to amputation or limb-sparing surgery (322 days), than with surgery alone. It is believed that doxorubicin used in OSA treatment is as effective as cisplatin or carboplatin. Alternative chemotherapy protocols include using lobaplatin or ifosfamide. Another attempt to improve chemotherapy’s effectiveness was to compare the effects of two cytostatic drugs given in an alternating schedule. The efficiency of alternating the administration of cisplatin and doxorubicin after amputation was evaluated. 38 dogs treated with combined therapy after amputation had a significantly longer survival time than dogs that were treated with amputation alone, yet the result was still similar to the one achieved during monotherapy which involves carboplatin or doxorubicin.

Breeder Advice: -

Disease Description Source: Link