Mast Cell Tumor

[CuppaTeaNeeded]

Just looking for a hand hold really and any ones experience / advice. My dog (frenchie, rescued aged 4) has just been diagnosed with a cancerous mast cell tumor.

He has had a fine needle aspirate that has confirmed it, they said the cells are showing signs of being quite aggressive (plus the lump has grown and changed significantly in 3-4 months, apparently some don’t grown for 3-4 years).

We were given quite a few options of next steps, eg CT scans with the specialist to see where it has spread to, chemo, surgical removal alone, surgical removal plus chemo.

I’m conscious he’s almost 9 (a good age for a Frenchie), and currently isn’t poorly or in pain with it. I don’t want him to spend his last days sick and in pain.

My heads going towards surgical removal only. They have said this should prolong the spread but we don’t know where else it is already. Also as it’s so close to his bum, they can’t take out the full margin / buffer they would usually remove.

Anyone any thoughts / recommendations/ advice?

It will depend on the margins as surgery in that area is tricky, and getting good wound closure might be hard too depending on the size of the tumour, but typically chemo for dogs is not the same regarding side effects as chemo for people. We don't tend to hit dogs with the super high doses that humans have - it's approached from a more palliative care point of view from the start. So depending on what your vet says surgery plus chemo might not be a bad option. Best of luck to you both.

Thank you. He has explained that he won’t be able to get the full margin due to the location.

What would chemo likely entail? As in length of time / frequency of visits / side effects. We did talk about it briefly but I think I thought it would be too intense for him.

This is the tumor for reference.

Eeesh that's a very tricky location. There's also a higher risk of infection due to the proximity to his anus. So with what you know so far:

• it's a visibly fast growing tumour
• FNA has confirmed it's quite aggressive so is likely to grow back quite quickly as full removal is not possible
• it may have already spread
• surgery is complicated by location
• left alone the tumour will continue to grow and will start to ulcerate and bleed due to trauma to the area

Based on this, treatment is likely to be aiming to prolong his life rather than cure him. I think I'd go back to your vets and ask what sort of chemo schedule they recommend. Some are quite intense, some less so. I'd also want to know how long they think (roughly) each treatment might give him (although this is very hard to predict). If you're potentially only looking at a few months I'd personally not do surgery either, have a few good weeks together before the tumour gets much bigger and then PTS before he goes downhill. X

Thank you for taking the time to go over the options. They did say they couldn’t predict how long each option would give him. It has started to bleed in the last two weeks.

I think you are correct, I doubt a full recovery is possible, so give him the surgery and let him live as long as he has a good life and when it ceases to be a good life let him go.

Could your vets find out if it's a suitable case for Stelfonta?

Just googled it, would they do that without knowing if it’s already spread?

You've just commented on my thread and I presume you saw my dog's cancer was mast cell. Hers also was a more aggressive type.

If I had my time again I would still have removed the tumour from her paw as it gave her quality of life. However with the benefit of hindsight I wouldn't have got the second one done without getting an ultrasound scan the day before. These tumours grow so rapidly. Look at what his average life expectancy is and work out how much longer treatment will buy him, and what quality of life he will have, then decide from there. It's an awful position to be put in. I wish you all the best.

Thank you for taking the time to reply. Your post was heartbreaking. These poor little pups.

I think I’m going to stick with my gut feeling of letting them operate once and then just keep him as comfortable as possible after that.

I’m currently going through this. I would
recommend checking out the Facebook group Pet Parents of Mast Cell tumour dogs facebook group. There’s a lot of experience in the group.

Our 2 year old frenchie had a mct removed almost a year ago, clean margins but as aggressive as it gets. We went with chemo, it really wasnt as bad as we thought it would be. Vets once every 3 weeks for a few hours, a bit more tired and got a tummy bug - cleared with antibiotics and an extra week between cycles. No signs of it coming back almost a year later. Remember with chemo you can stop if they dont react well, we always took it one treatment at a time and decided based on how he was in himself and blood work ups whether to do it or postpone, it took a bit longer than it was meant to but we got there.

I think given it's position I'd want to know how difficult the recovery from surgery might be (the positioning looks awkward) and what life expectancy is beyond that. I'm not sure how much I'd want to put a dog through a surgical recovery if their time left is quite limited, and at 9 he's a age for a Frenchie, even if that ultimately means a shorter lifespan.

Glad to hear you had good results.

I think if he was 2 we would be willing to try more options but at 9 and already getting stressed at the vets, I just don’t know if I want to put him through that every 3 weeks.

Thank you, will take a look.