ABSTRACT
Canine appendicular osteosarcoma is an important clinical problem in veterinary medicine. Current standard therapy includes amputation followed by chemotherapy, which improves outcomes; however the percentage of long-term survival is still relatively low at 15–20%. Established prognostic factors include serum alkaline phosphatase level, histologic grade, and lymphocyte and monocyte counts. We used a protocol with shorter inter-treatment intervals than standard, but which we expected to still be well-tolerated, based on drugs known to be active agents, with the aim of improving outcomes by increasing dose intensity. Thirty-eight dogs with confirmed appendicular osteosarcoma and no pulmonary metastases that underwent amputation followed by this chemotherapy protocol were retrospectively evaluated. The median survival time was 317 days and 1- and 2-yr survival percentages were 43.2% and 13.9%, respectively. Toxicity was comparable to that seen with other standard dose protocols, with 5.2% of dogs hospitalized for complications that resolved with supportive care and no chemotherapy-related mortality. Serum alkaline phosphatase level (normal or high) (p = 0.004) and whether or not chemotherapy was completed (p = 0.001) were found to significantly impact survival time on multivariate analysis. Outcomes were similar to those reported with most other published chemotherapy protocols for dogs with this disease.
Estimates of Correlations Between Serum Alkaline Phosphatase Level and Productive Traits
