My 7 year old black lab, Brady, was just diagnosed with histiocytosis.  My hunband and I have been informed that this is very rare and the information regarding this is all over the map.  A little background:  We noticed his right front leg was swollen in December and he was limping.  We took him to the vets and they initially diagnosed him with osteosarcoma.  We had his leg amputated.  We are now meeting with the cancer specialists this week to determine a course of treatment.  Has anyone had experience with Histiocytosis?  What can we expect in terms of life expectancy?  Our vet did not know much about it since it is out our her area of expertise.  I was just hoping to find some news prior to our meeting with the cancer specialists on Thursday.

Thanks,

Marcy

Thanks for your responses.  We had a meeting with the oncologist.  Brady had a full work up - chest xray, ultrasound of his spleen, and some liquid removed from his lymph node and spleen.  All his test came back negative for mestasis.  The oncologist gave him a very favorable prognosis.  His cancer is localized, which is the best possible outcome for this type of cancer.  We are starting his chemo this weekend.  He will do one full round of chemo (4-6 treatments) and then we will reassess.  The oncologist said if he is good after this first round, we can discontinue the chemo and then have him checked every 4-6 months.  The oncologist believes that the amputation saved his life!