Lymphoma Diagnosis

[Catsctatchyou]

After many tests and a liver biopsy my sweet Spooky has been diagnosed with lymphoma. Cancer of the liver.

His issues first started in November. My vet has advised the only treatmeant is a 18 week course of chemotherapy. And she advised there is a possibility he could not survive the chemo.

I’ve never been through this before. He seems comfortable right now. He’s eating and drinking.

Should I start the chemo treatment or just make him comfortable. I want to give him a chance if he could get better but I don’t want to cause him suffering if he’s not going to get better.

 

[daftcat75]

I'm told cats tolerate chemo really well. It's not nearly so rough on them as it is on people. I have no experience with cats and chemo though. Hopefully someone else who does will chime in.

 

[FelisCatus]

My currently sick kitty cat with Mammary cancer stopped doing chemo (Palladia) since it didn’t help. The problem with the type of cancer your cat has is that it affects the liver, chemo would be processed and filtered through there which means it could be more deadly yes. My kitty cat had to do bloodwork every 2 weeks and their liver was in perfect condition.

Did they give you the option of a prednisone shot right into the tumor on the liver? Not sure how viable that is since it’s not a mast cell tumor on the skin or something.

What stage is the cancer? Has it metastasized (spread)?

 

[Catsctatchyou]

We done a ultrasound and xrays of his liver and everything was clear. So there was no tumor on the liver. We just got the results back of his liver biopsy today and it came back as lymphoma.

She said we could try steroids if we chose to not start chemo but he wouldn’t last very long on steroids alone.

As of right now I don’t know that it’s spread. When the ultrasound sound was completed all his organs were clear and elevated liver eznzymes and bilirubin is all that is showing on bloodwork.

 

[FelisCatus]

Was the x-ray just the liver or whole body? If there are no tumors yet and it’s just in the lymph nodes that’s different.

The problem with lymphoma is that the cancer has a high chance of spreading through the lymphatic system.

What made you take Spooky in to do all of these tests? Did you feel lumps or something?

 

[KarenKat]

We tried chemo for our 10 year cat Trin when we suspected intestinal lymphoma (we never did a biopsy so it was always “suspected”). He was impossible to pull so we had a liquid form of Chlorambucil along with daily steroids.

He did seem to tolerate it ok, but over time he became less active and grumpier (although that could have been the steroids) and I think the liquid chemo was very harsh on his throat - his voice became very hoarse.

When we stopped the meds at the end, he had a huge burst of energy and seemed euphoric. So from my anecdote it was not terrible but it did affect him. Hope that helps.

 

[FelisCatus]

I personally opted for doing chemo regardless of the low chance of success because I had to try anything I could. As mentioned by daftcat75 , cats have a high tolerance for chemo and my kitty cat had 0 side effects. It’s not like humans where they lose their hair and feel like puking their guts out.

 

[Catsctatchyou]

Was the x-ray just the liver or whole body? If there are no tumors yet and it’s just in the lymph nodes that’s different.

The problem with lymphoma is that the cancer has a high chance of spreading through the lymphatic system.

What made you take Spooky in to do all of these tests? Did you feel lumps or something?

The X-ray was the whole body. Spooky suffers from skin allergies and we had him on atopica. When we went in for a check up he had lost about a pound and a half and that concerned the doctor. So we did blood work and everything was normal but for the liver and bilirubin levels. He’s been on steroids, ursodial and denamarin but the levels were gradually increasing and that was the reason for the biopsy.

 

[FelisCatus]

That is both good and bad news. Most likely you caught it in the very early stages then (stage 1). By the time my kitty cat was diagnosed it had already spread to her lungs...

If you are financially able to do the chemo, I would recommend it for your own peace of mind knowing you tried everything you could.

The oncoligist trips with blood work and Palladia (also Metacam) for 1.5 months costed me $1,500 CAD. I had to go to an emergency hospital to see the oncolgist though which is why it costed so much. The local universitys vet hospital that has an oncolgist wait time was too long otherwise it would have been half of that.

 

[denice]

That is a personal decision. You didn't say how old he is which for me anyway would be part of the decision. If he is a younger cat and you can afford it I would try, but that would be my own personal decision. If he is an older cat I would probably opt for making him comfortable.

 

[FelisCatus]

That is a personal decision. You didn't say how old he is which for me anyway would be part of the decision. If he is a younger cat and you can afford it I would try, but that would be my own personal decision. If he is an older cat I would probably opt for making him comfortable.

To build off of this, why not both? We had choseb to alternate chemo (Palladia) and palliative care (Metacam) every other day (which you would most likely do anyway as they have long half lifes). That way we were trying to fight it and make her comfortable. The bloodwork you do for either would work for both.

Right now she is on Metacam every other day and antibiotics everyday.