Rose will be 13 in November. She had 3 Grade II mast cell tumors surgically removed during her 3 year old year. Because of locations, clean margins were not possible. She has done well all these years. Earlier this year she had one surgically removed form her flank. This week she had one removed from a front paw between two toes. Path report just came back...Grade II again. Vet said if it grows back, he can not surgically remove it again because of the location. He's going to check into some chemo drugs and get back to me. I am very mindful of side effects though, because at her age, I want her remaining days/months and hopefully years to be all about quality of life. I won't give her anything that's going to diminish that, unless it was a short term course offering a good prognosis.

So I was reading about Palladia for mast cell tumors in canines, made by Pfizer. Just wondering if anyone has ever tried it for their dog. The possible side effects don't sound too bad. Rose doesn't tolerate Pred well, so that's not an option.

TIA

I had a big Mass cell on one of my girls. I have not heard any good reports from the Chemo treatments. Sound more like something that is done for the heartsick owner the more I know. I would never put an older dog through all that. Would you want to be sick all the time the last year of your life. Most vet recommend a regiment of small dozes of Predisone and something like Tagamet. This gave my girl and another friends almost a year. Other wise was told 3 to 6 mos. She was happy the rest of her life. Glad I did it this way. Sorry for your report but just give her the best life that remains.

Thanks for the reply, but please re-read my post. I was wondering if anyone had experience with giving this drug, not asking someone to make a decision whether I should put an older dog through any kind of chemo, no one not even my vet, makes decisions for me or my dogs. We went the Pred with Tagamet route when she was 3 years old and had to wean her off the Pred because she wasn't tolerating it within limits that I would accept for her. Even then her quality of day to day life was most important to me, so let me make it clear again that NO I'm not looking to "have her sick all the time her last year of life".

I am past the "panic, OMG, it's a death sentence" stage with a diagnosis of mast cell tumor.... went through that when she was 3 years old, but found out that is not always the case as it is almost 10 years later. I want to do everything I can for her, but I also want her to be the dog I've known her to be for as long as possible. Her knick name is "Rose the Dozer", she lives life to the fullest... ahhh, our little bull dozer.

While I was waiting for the path report from a recent dog who had a mast cell removed, I looked into Palladia. I believe that Palladia is different from traditional chemotherapies such as vinblastin because it targets a specific mutation involved in mast cell tumors. Sounded like it might be more effective than traditional chemotherapies. But I never really had to explore further because my dog's mast cell had clean margins and an exceedingly low mitotic index.

I also explore further diagnostics such as KIT genotyping and lymph node mapping. Again, I never really had to followup on my initial research.

I've chosen chemotherapy for dogs with other kinds of cancer and not found that dogs experience the illness that humans experience in reaction to the same chemotherapy. One twelve year old dog looked forward to going for her chemotherapy and only had one episode of vomiting. The chemotherapy did not decrease the size of her tumor but it did yield a period of time when the tumor did not grow. She had 18 months from the time of her diagnosis, and only the last month was debilitating.

I'm sorry you are facing this decision. It doesn't appear that there is long-term information about effectiveness of Palladia. I hate these kinds of decisions! I hope that if you do decide to do chemotherapy, you will post about the results.

I will add you and your girl to my prayer list. Kate

Thanks for the reply Kate. Now that you mention about the mitotic index, my vet did say that Rose's was "0" and he said that they are finding that that can be more important than the pathology Grading (I, II or III).

I think his concern is about the location and if the mast cell should come back agressively.

I believe that the recent research finds that mitotic index and clean margins are the most important indicators of recurrence. Recent research found that about 96% of mast cell tumors that are Grade 1 and Grade 2 are cured by surgery alone if the mitotic index is low and the margins clean. The location of the mast cell tumor is less important than previously thought, except insofar as the location may make getting clean margins difficult. My vet also said that unless a tumor appears in the same place as one that has been removed, the tumor is considered a new tumor rather than a recurrence of an old tumor.

But mast cell tumors are tricky creatures that are hard to predict. I had a twelve year old dog who developed a mast cell tumor on the skin above his spine, making clean margins unlikely. He also developed another kind of cancer on the nerve sheath that passed over his elbow; the treatment would have been complete removal of his front leg including his shoulder and a month of radiation. We decided to do nothing about either tumor. He lived to be 16 and died of something else entirely.

I'm very interested in what you decide because I think the decisions of thoughtful people help all of us in our future decisions. And I pray that you and your girl have much happy time together. Kate

I was only trying to help. Some don't know how good the pred and tagamet works. So excuse me, I don't know about Palladia. Think we all do what we think in the end.

No problem. Yes, I'm sure most here try to gather as much information to make an informed decision in the best interest of their dog.