# Golden retriever with lymphoma



## cwag (Apr 25, 2017)

I'm very sorry you and your girl are dealing with this. I don't have any personal experience with it but if you click the Search Community above and type Lymphoma in quotes there are way too many threads from people dealing with it. I hope the specialist will have treatments that give you lots more time with your sweet girl.


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## aesthetic (Apr 23, 2015)

Hi! My boy was diagnosed with lymphoma (and then he didn’t end up having lymphoma) but I went down a super-rabbit hole.

I’m assuming you got the diagnosis by cytology? Your oncologist may ask if you’d like to do Flow Cytometry or PARR testing to confirm the diagnosis but also to tell you if the lymphoma is B-cell or T-cell. That testing isn’t necessary, but doing Flow and PARR is how we found out that my dog does not have lymphoma despite enlarged lymph nodes and a cytology report that says he does (truthfully, I don’t think that’s a common situation!). Apparently it can also help narrow down which chemo would be more effective, but I don’t know much on that. As the saying goes, “B is for bad, T is for terrible”. T-cell lymphoma is usually more aggressive than B-cell.

There are a lot of chemo options for lymphoma, which makes it one of the “nicer” (for lack of a better word) cancers. Some of the protocols are more/less expensive, your oncologist would definitely be the person to ask. The most common, and the longest, protocol is called the CHOP protcol. I believe the Madison-Wisconsin vet school created that protocol. It consists of vincristine, cytoxan, doxorubicin, and prednisone on a weekly rotating basis. I believe sometimes another drug called L-Asparaginase is used too. Besides CHOP, there’s LOPP, MVPP, probably others I don’t know. You can use single-agent treatments, like just lomustine, just L-Asparaginase (elspar), and just prednisone. Obviously these all have varying prognoses, your oncologist would be a good person to ask about that too. I worked briefly at an emergency vet hospital with specialties attached, and we had quite a few dogs that were in remission and otherwise thriving. One of my favorite dogs was dx with lymphoma last January, and last I heard (as of a month ago), was still going strong with continuous treatment. Of course the opposite happens too (I feel like I have to say that as a precaution!).

If you have any vet schools nearby, sometimes they have clinical trials that may be beneficial. Last I checked, UPenn had some lymphoma clinical trials going on. Never hurts to try.

If you’re on facebook, the group “Fighting Canine Lymphoma” is a really good support group. The members are all going through the process of diagnosis and treatment, and will have better personal experience than I do.

I’m very sorry that your poor girl and you have this diagnosis. I hope you have many, many more good days left!


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## Otis-Agnes (Nov 24, 2015)

About 11 years ago our Haylie was diagnosed with Lymphoma (she was 6). I don't remember too many specifics. We brought her to the vet for weekly chemo treatments. The cancer stayed away for a year. She was so spoiled that last year. I'm hoping the treatments are much better now... good luck with your girl. Agnes


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## GoldenMom4 (Sep 17, 2021)

We got back from the specialist vet a little while ago. He took a sample and is sending it by overnight courier to a pathologist at Colorado State University for flow cytometry testing. He said the pathologist should be able to read the sample by tomorrow afternoon and he should have the results by Monday and then will start my golden on treatment then or Tuesday. He is recommending the CHOP protocol, which altogether takes about 5 months to complete.

He said the longest surviving patient he has is an Australian cattle dog who is seven years out from treatment and doing fine, but that is not common. He also said my golden's case is somewhat atypical due to her young age (5) and the fact that the cells in the initial pathology report were of intermediate size, rather than the larger sized cells they usually see. Hopefully that is a good sign and means treatment will work for her and have longer-term results.


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## aesthetic (Apr 23, 2015)

GoldenMom4 said:


> He also said my golden's case is somewhat atypical due to her young age (5) and the fact that the cells in the initial pathology report were of intermediate size, rather than the larger sized cells they usually see. Hopefully that is a good sign and means treatment will work for her and have longer-term results.


Kaizer is 6 and his cytology report also said intermediate cell lymphoma. Per cytology report, our choices were t-zone lymphoma (slow growing) or lymphoblastic lymphoma (highly aggressive). Kaizer apparently has neither per flow and PARR.


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## GoldenMom4 (Sep 17, 2021)

aesthetic said:


> Kaizer is 6 and his cytology report also said intermediate cell lymphoma. Per cytology report, our choices were t-zone lymphoma (slow growing) or lymphoblastic lymphoma (highly aggressive). Kaizer apparently has neither per flow and PARR.


I wish so much that that would be the case for my golden too, but I don't think that it will be. I am absolutely terrified about what this is going to be like for her and whether or not it will help. And I am very concerned about side effects. The vet said most dogs tolerate it well, but I don't want her to have any stomach upset or get to the point where she can't/doesn't want to eat. She's only 5 1/2 and I am so upset. I wish she'd be with me at least another 5 1/2 years, if not more.

I got Rose after the last and oldest of my three previous goldens passed away from kidney failure at nearly 16 1/2 years old. I lost all three of them in just under a year - my other two, Lily and Katie, died eight months apart from hemangiosarcoma. They were 11 1/2 and just barely eight years old. My oldest, Margaret, passed away from kidney failure not quite four months after Katie. I only waited three weeks before I got Rose.


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## tam_h (Jun 17, 2018)

Hi GoldenMom4,
I currently have a 3 year old golden with T-cell Lymphoma. We were floored and devastated when we received our diagnosis in June. I write to offer empathy for your situation because I am there. I cry over my dog every single day but so far we have had an almost additional 3 months with him. Our golden received L-asparganase as kind of a starter boost when first diagnosed and subsequently has had 4 rounds of Lomustine. Because his cancer is so aggressive we chose not to be overly aggressive with treatment because we didn't want him to suffer from side effects (we also live over an hour from an emergency vet clinic and our specialist). I wanted him to have the best quality of life with the time he has left. So far, his side effects have been minimal but at his last appointment we learned the cancer had spread to his spleen. We take each day at a time and every day that he wakes up wagging his tail and excited for breakfast and his walk is another day that my heart is full. 
Feel free to send me a PM because sometimes misery loves company and if you have any other questions I can answer since we are going through this nightmare right now. My heart goes our to you and all the other owners of sick goldens.


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## GoldenMom4 (Sep 17, 2021)

tam_h said:


> Hi GoldenMom4,
> I currently have a 3 year old golden with T-cell Lymphoma. We were floored and devastated when we received our diagnosis in June. I write to offer empathy for your situation because I am there. I cry over my dog every single day but so far we have had an almost additional 3 months with him. Our golden received L-asparganase as kind of a starter boost when first diagnosed and subsequently has had 4 rounds of Lomustine. Because his cancer is so aggressive we chose not to be overly aggressive with treatment because we didn't want him to suffer from side effects (we also live over an hour from an emergency vet clinic and our specialist). I wanted him to have the best quality of life with the time he has left. So far, his side effects have been minimal but at his last appointment we learned the cancer had spread to his spleen. We take each day at a time and every day that he wakes up wagging his tail and excited for breakfast and his walk is another day that my heart is full.
> Feel free to send me a PM because sometimes misery loves company and if you have any other questions I can answer since we are going through this nightmare right now. My heart goes our to you and all the other owners of sick goldens.


Thank you. The specialist's office called yesterday and the flow cytometry test results came back indicating she has the more common B-cell lymphoma. She starts treatment tomorrow afternoon on the CHOP protocol, which is what the specialist uses and has the best results with.


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