If Looks Could Kill!

Even though Copper is ill, he still needs to take his bath. Something he apparently doesn't agree with... Wouldn't you agree?

Coppers Chemo Visit -- 4/24/06

Copper had another good Chemo visit today. His blood work came back great, so they decided that he would get a Chemo treatment today. Then next Monday, he will go in for the lower half body radiation.

Here are the costs for today's visit:

Recheck.........................................$59.00
QBC or CBC in Hospital........................$40.80
Regulatory Agency Compliance fee...........$ 4.23
Chemotherapy injectable handling fee......$16.30
Vincristine (Chemo Drug)......................$32.51
Chemotherapy Infusion.........................$23.30

Total: ..........................................$176.14

Grand Total: ................................$2515.11

Radiation -- the Next Day

Last night when I brought Copper home, he was very doppy and slept all night long. I did wake him up so he could take his seizure medication. He ate the piece of dog food I had put it in without any problem, and then went back to sleep. He woke up around 3 am, and I gave him a little dog food. he then went right back to sleep and did not get up until I woke him up at 6am. He then had a real breakfast and a treat.

I wasn't home today, but it appears he slept most of the day (in my chair mind you).

Tonight he is very alert, and almost back to his normal self. He is still tired, and is sleeping right now. The vet did tell me that he might be tired for a couple of days, so I'm not worried about this. Other than being tired, I don't see any other side effects of the treatment.

Of course, with all the green X's all over his body, he looks like he has been tagged!

Half Body Radiation Visit -- 4/17/06

Today, Copper had the top half of his body radiated (sounds bad doesn't it?). The session took place at 2:30 pm, and I was able to take him home around 5:30 pm.

To do radiation, he did need to be put under anesthesia because they needed him to stay very still while they did the radiation session. The oncologyst that did the session told me that it takes about 15 minutes to set up the session & put him under anesthesia, the session lasts 10 minutes, and then the rest of the time is waiting for the drugs to wear off enough for him to come home.

When I went to pick him up, he was pretty mellow.... and the vet said he will probably sleep well tonight. They also had to shave a little strip on his back, and on his tummy, and then spray paint the strip. This was so they knew what part of his body they did. So he has a green strip on his back, tummy and head. Poor guy he is looking pretty funny right now.

Because they did the top half of his body, they don't expect any side effects (other than being doped up). I'll write about any that I notice.

Here is the breakdown of today's session. I should mention that I got a good deal on the treatment. Because they are trying to get people to use this treatment, they charged me 1/3 of what it would have normally cost. Dr. Crow is hoping that if they can get more people to try it, they can gather more data on the treatment. He said that they have gone as far as they can with chemo, and would like to try and get more dogs in remission for longer than 1 year.

CTC Propofol/Isoflurane 1st 30...........$249.40
CTC Treatment Plan/Simulation.........$225.00
Regulatory Agency Compliance fee........ $ 4.23
CTC Treatment FX (Linac) 1-5 Per........ $21.37

Total: ............................................$500.00

Grand Total: .......................................$2338.97

Copper's Vet Visit -- 4/10/2006

Copper went to the vet last Monday and had some blood drawn. The blood test came back very good. Everything is normal. He is still in remission, and all of his organs are functioning well.
The blood work was for his up-coming radiation treatment. This treatment takes place this coming Monday - 4/17/2006. I'm a little nervous about it, for he can has some radiation sickness. I was told that there isn't too much sickness with the top half of the body (which is what he is getting). Most of the sickness comes when they do the bottom half. in a couple of weeks.

Here is a breakdown of the costs this week:

Bloodwork: $59.00

Total: $59.00

Grand Total: $1838.97

Copper's Sweater

Can you believe what she put me in?

Copper's Chemo Visit -- 4/03/2006

Copper had another good week! He is still in remission and so far, the Chemo has not had a negative affect on him. The oncology did say that when he went back for his treatment, he seemed a little scared, but then when she came in, he became very social and happy to see her.

His weight was 55 lbs. He gained. .60 of a lb. This is good, but he has been wanting a lot of treats, and I have been spoiling him a bit!

Here is a breakdown of the costs this week:

Recheck: $59.00
QBC or CBC In Hospital: $40.80
Chemotherapy injectable handling fee: $16.30
Adriamycin (Chemo drug): $37.80
Chemotherapy Infusion: $80.00
Regulatory Agency Compliance Fee: $4.23
Total: $238.13

Grand Total: $1779.97

Next week Copper will go in for some blood work because when he goes in for his half-body radiation, he must have anesthesia, so I need to make sure he can handle that OK. He will then go in for his first half-body treatment on April 17, 2006.

Half-Body Radiation Decision

Well,
After all of the research I conducted, I decided to have half-body radiation done on Copper. I found two positive studies on the subject, and I received two emails from people who have had it done. One person who emailed me had very positive results from half-body radiation and would have it done again. The other person was not sure if the half-body made any difference.

In my previous post, I wrote about the most current study done on half-body, but here is the data that I found on the other study that was done. The study took place in 1999:
29 dogs were treated with half-body radiation
31 dogs were treated with chemotherapy alone

The one, two, three year remission percentages were as follows:

Chemo Alone
One Year: 27%
Two Years: 0%
Three Years: 0%

Half-Body Radiation
One Year: 36%
Two Years: 27%
Three Years: 27%

Most importantly, side effects post-radiation were mild and self-limiting. ] More than 15 patients treated at the clinic have resulted in no cases of radiation serum sickness, tumor lysis syndrome, or pneumonitis.

Encouraging Article on half-body radiation treatment

I found the following article on half-body radiation:

J Vet Intern Med. 2004 Sep-Oct;18(5):703-9.

Chemotherapy followed by half-body radiation therapy for canine lymphoma.

Williams LE, Johnson JL, Hauck ML, Ruslander DM, Price GS, Thrall DE.

Department of Clinical Sciences, Veterinary Teaching Hospital, College of Veterinary Medicine, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27606, USA. laurel_williams@ncsu.edu

A protocol of induction chemotherapy followed by half-body radiation therapy for treatment of lymphoma was used in 94 dogs. Seventy-three (78%) dogs achieved complete remission. Substage (P = .011) and phenotype (P = .015) were identified as predictors of complete remission rate. Of these, 52 dogs received half-body irradiation. Cranial and caudal halves received a total dose of 8.0 Gy, given in 2 fractions of 4.0 Gy on consecutive days with cobalt-60 photons and a 3-week interval between halves. Median 1st remission for these dogs was 311 days. Anemia was identified as the only predictor for length of 1st remission (P = .024). Toxicoses after half-body irradiation generally were mild and infrequent and included myelosuppression and gastrointestinal signs. Thirty-one dogs relapsed and 20 resumed treatment with induction followed by maintenance chemotherapy. Seventeen (85%) dogs achieved a 2nd complete remission. Median overall remission for all 52 dogs was 486 days. Results of this study suggest that half-body radiation therapy after induction chemotherapy is well tolerated and might increase remission duration compared with conventional protocols that use chemotherapy alone, but this increase might not be long enough to be clinically relevant or to justify application of the method described herein.