58° Congresso Nazionale SCIVAC: Oncologia veterinaria

58° Congresso Nazionale SCIVAC • Milano, 7-9 Marzo 2008 • Oncologia veterinaria - Alle soglie del III Millennio
therapy, are around 50 weeks. However, we note only an 8- 15% adverse effect
rate for dogs treated with this protocol. Thus we feel that while the response durations
are not as good with some of the other protocols, the adverse effect rates
are compelling particularly in the treatment of geriatric patients. Seventy-five
dogs with cytologically or histologically confirmed lymphoma received CO-
PLA/LVP between January 1994 and June 1997. Toxicity was evaluated using
the National Cancer Institute (NCI) toxicity criteria. Age, weight, sex and response
were evaluated for prognostic significance against first remission duration.
A complete response was obtained in 61 dogs (80%), a partial response in
9 dogs (12%) and no response in 5 dogs (8%). The median first remission duration
was 25 weeks with 17% and 5% of the dogs in first remission at 1 and 2
years respectively. Observed toxicity was low with 84% of dogs given and NCI
score of 1 or 2. Median survival for dogs achieving complete response was 36
weeks versus 4 weeks for those achieving partial response or no response.
ALTERNATIVE THERAPIES
Other forms of therapy that have been reported to be useful in the treatment
of canine lymphoma include bone marrow transplantation and various
immune therapies. Bone marrow transplantation has shown up to 25% long
term survivals (cures), but 50% of patients so treated experienced a remission
such as would be expected from chemotherapy and 25% of patients died as a
consequence of toxicity.
Tumor vaccines
Autologous tumor cell vaccines have produced prolonged remission and
survival times when administered to patients who were in complete remission
at the time of their administration. Mean survival times of 341 days for vaccinated
dogs as compared to 138 days for chemotherapy treatment alone have
been reported. Unfortunately, such vaccine products are not routinely available.
Recently, some activity in the production of B cell anti-idiotype vaccines
has been discussed. At this point, controlled trials have not been carried
out to assess the efficacy of this approach.
Monoclonal antibodies
A monoclonal canine lymphoma antibody was produced against an unknown
but apparently highly conserved surface epitope in canine lymphoma.
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