We never had a  satisfactory/final diagnosis-- first, we did an MRI and  the radiologist diagnosed Scout with possible synovial cell sarcoma.  Then we did a bone biopsy, and the diagnosis was probable histiocytic sarcoma.  The "final" diagnosis on the amputated limb was  a "poorly differentiated sarcoma".  I was so frustrated not to have a concrete diagnosis, but the surgeon said it didn't matter in terms of treatment-- in terms of chemo, you treat all sarcomas the same-- you might want to see if your vet agrees.  Still, it was so frustrating-- I like answers.  I am sorry that you did not have the opportunity to do the pathology on the amputated limb, but in our case, the final diagnosis was still not an answer.  By the way, I am so glad Charlie is doing so well-- he's a good looking boy.

Is the vet who did the surgery an oncologist or a family vet (or something else).  Personally I would be PISSED about the vet not doing the pathology without first discussing it with you.  But like the others have said, what's done is done, so now time to move on.  If I were in your shoes, I would ask your current vet to fill an oncologist in on everything that is known and then I'd swap to seeing the new oncologist.  I don't think I'd continue with the current vet after that because at least in our experience we WERE able to get a diagnosis from a sample (though we got it from a surgical biopsy done before amputation) and it made a huge difference in how we have treated Spencer's cancer.

For us, our family vet went in the morning after we found the tumor and checked to see if he possibly could remove it (he couldn't) and then took a sample for biopsy.  We got the results of a grade 3 fibrosarcoma a few days later.  His leg was amputated 1 week after we found the tumor.  Our vet started talking with an oncologist in the Atlanta area then; but we had decided to do the amputation ASAP due to how aggressive the tumor was.  After the amputation the leg was not sent off for further pathology because the tumor was so large that our family vet said that it would be almost impossible to know 100% if we had clean margins.  he did go in and look at it himself and said that the tumor was encapsulated in a membrane and the membrane did seem intact.  So we are optimistic that he got clean margins.

The oncologist that looked at Spencer's records recommended chemo.  We ended up going to see him and he explained that if Spencer's tumor had been a grade 1 or 2 that we could assume that the amputation was a curative surgery; but with a grade 3 we had to assume it had spread at a cellular level, so chemo was strongly recommended.  

Spencer has done really well with the chemo.  Today was his 9th treatment.  He is going to have 15 total.  Originally it was going to be 12 weeks, 3 week cycles with Adria and Cytoxan on week 1 and Vincristine on weeks 2 and 3.  15 weeks is normally the recommendation; but adria can cause heart issues that dobermans are already more prone to, so they didn't want him doing more than four doses of the adria.  But, after some weakness issues 2 weeks into the chemo, we had a cardio workup done and it turns out that Spencer has a heart that isn't fully functioning.  So we swapped meds and bumped to 15 weeks.  Spencer has had a few issues of an upset stomach and today he seems more tired than normal; but in general he has been doing great.  I guess I'll never know if the cancer isn't back yet because of the chemo, or if it simply wasn't going to come back.  But what I do know is that he is doing great.  He is alive almost 3 months after finding the tumor and so far at least seems to be cancer free.  

I'm not going to lie though, the chemo has been/is going to be EXPENSIVE.  each week with vincristine is $175, each week with the mitox is about $390 (includes 2 weeks of antibiotics for each of those treatments).  If we had been able to do the adria/cytoxan it would have been a little less expensive.  All told we will have spent nearly $4,000 on the chemo, plus the $300 - $400 for the original surgery for the biopsy, plus about $1,000 for the amputation surgery, plus about $800 for an ER visit then a cardio workup.  (not to mention ANOTHER surgery and lots of meds because he got MRSA !)  

So it is important to take into consideration the expense.  And today I talked to our oncologist about Spencer's longterm prognosis.  They only give him 50/50 odds on an "apparent cure".  I do know that the original tumor initially grew from nothing that you could see at.all to the size of a jumbo egg in less than 2 months.  And here we are almost 3 months post amputation, 9 weeks into chemo, and there is no sign of a tumor yet.  I really do feel that the chemo has at a minimum bought us time, if not a cure.

Good luck!!!

Hi there,

Glad your boy is doing well with recovery!!!  Keep on going up and up!

Yes, Charon is right.  My dog, Maggie, also was diagnosed with STS - and never found out which type even after many special stains done.  BTW, they never sent out her entire leg to do so either.  But it was weeks, stain after stain, never an answer.  Some ruled out but never an actual type of STS diagnosed.  Like Jerry said, "shot in dark" was the words my Vet used if we did chemo on Maggie.  Because we didn't know exactly what type of STS AND because Maggie was so sick after surgery for 2 weeks, she felt chemo would be a "shot in the dark".  I opted out of  chemo and my Vet actually recommended against me doing it.  She is treated with homeopathy daily by Dr. Charles Loops in NC, instead.  There are several dogs here that I know of that are also treated by Dr. Loops - Eisen and Roxy off the top of my head.

Seems alot of these cancers never get pinpointed down exactly

Tracy, Maggie's Mom