Tripawds Three Legged Dog & Cat Forum Archives

I'm so sorry your pup has been diagnosed, he's such a young guy!

It does sound like you have a great vet team looking out for all of you. To answer your question about radiation therapy, yes, it is the standard treatment for a soft tissue sarcoma situation like this. According to Dr. Demian Dressler, author of the Dog Cancer Survival Guide (which we highly recommend getting, it's indispensable when coping with cancer)...

Although surgery is clearly important, there is an increasing move toward a combined treatment of surgery and radiation therapy for narrow or incomplete margins. Most commonly, radiation therapy is started two to three weeks after surgery. A course of radiation therapy after surgery can help to control the tumor locally and prevent recurrence from microscopic cells. Low and intermediate grades of STS may really benefit from this combined approach: 75% of afflicted dogs are still alive, five years later without tumor regrowth. STS is one of the few malignancies associated with five-year control rates, which justifies the extra expense and involvement of adding radiation treatments in the minds of owners who choose it.

According to Dressler, STS does not respond well to chemotherapy, it's mainly used as palliative care to delay metastasis in high-grade cases. Metronomics can be used as an alternative to radiation therapy, but dogs who used it had a recurrance rate at about 14 months. "Clearly these statistics are not as impressive as those associated with post-surgical radiation treatments" he goes on to say.

Of course, money is a concern and you shouldn't feel terrible about it, we've all been there. Yes, radiation therapy is expensive and it's also not widely available around the country, that's pretty cool it's even an option for you guys. But if the money part is stressing you out, talk to your vet to see how they can help. We also have this Financial Resources information that you can check out.

I'm pretty certain that a holistic approach isn't commonly used for soft tissue sarcomas (can't recall anyone here who has), but if you wanted to investigate it as an option, check out this directory of holistic vets to find one near you.

I hope this helps, please let us know what we can do to make this easier for all of you. And do check out Jerry's Required Reading List for more tips about just coping with amputation in general. Stay tuned for more feedback from this great community!

knahas said
...how do I post more photos!!

FYI: Here are detailed steps for adding photos to forum posts . If you do not already share photos online somewhere, you can start a free Tripawds blog any time.