Caring for a Three Legged Dog or Cat
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Hi everyone,
Does anyone have any experience with a drug named CCNU or Lomustine? Our oncologist is recommending it as another option.
Butchey's hemangiosarcoma is spreading. We now have a couple of new tumors under his left ear and one of his two lung mets has grown another centimeter in the past 6 weeks. We are currently on a Cytoxan/Deramaxx/Doxycycline metronomic protocol along with I'm Yunity.
<Sigh>
Thanks for any info anyone can offer up.
Nancy (Butchey Hudson's momma)
Butchey Hudson Dx with HSA (knee joint) 5/19/2011. Amp on 6/14/2011. 26 glorious months of ampuversaries. Earned his wings 9/9/2013. Forever curled up in my heart.
I'm sorry Butchey's cancer is spreading- stupid cancer.
Tri-pug Maggie was on CCNU as part of her chemo regimen for mast cell cancer after her amp. She alternated that and vinblastine for about 6 months. She never really had any problems with it- the vin was harder on her. You can read about the regimen in her Blog under Amputation and Chemo. Mag survived way longer than her prognosis, I don't know if it was the chemo.
Another pup who used it was Rio, here is her Blog. Although Rio is an Angel now she also had mast cell cancer and like Maggie fought for about 4.5 years. You could PM Rio's mom Micki- she is not here that often, she posts as riosmom.
Good luck- I hope it helps.
Karen and the pugapalooza
Rusty was on Lomustine for 12 months along with Vinblastine for 6 months after his amputation. Rusty's cancer is still in remission 23 months after his last treatment with Lomustine. Rusty had a very high grade fibrosarcoma cancer and his Oncologist recommended this aggressive treatment regimen as his only hope of slowing the recurrence.
Rusty is now dealing with kidney and liver issues; he developed "induced" Fanconi Syndrome of his kidneys, which may be a result of the Lomustine treatments that he received. The good news is that Fanconi Syndrome is entirely controllable and Rusty was doing well with the treatment protocol until his liver started failing. We are now battling his deteriorating liver functions; we see Dr. Macy tomorrow morning, it has been 60 days since his last checkup.
The following was a post to my blog last April regarding the use of Lomustine:
"There was an article a few days ago from Dr. Susan Ettinger, (who is part of Dr. Dressler’s cancer treatment web site) from her attendance at the 2nd World Veterinary Cancer Congress in Paris; “A new side effect for Lomustine is being reported: kidney toxicity. We don’t yet know how common it is, but I will be double-checking for this in my own patients.”
Chuck & Rusty
Rusty is a Labradoodle who was diagnosed with level 3 Fibrosarcoma on January 16th, 2010 and had his left hind leg amputated on January 25th, 2010 five days before his 18 month birthday. Please see Rusty's blog @rusty.tripawds.com. He is putting up one heck of a fight against this terrible disease.
Thanks Chuck- I forgot Rusty was on CCNU so long.
I should also add that Maggie developed kidney failure about 3 years after she finished chemo. At the time our oncologist did not believe it was related to her chemo but I always wondered. I never did see any follow up information from Dr. Ettinger. I would have liked to be on the look out for kidney issues when we did the chemo, but honestly I didn't think Mag would be around long enough to worry about any possible long term effects- her original prognosis was 6 to 9 months. Such is the cancer battle.
Karen and the pugapalooza
I did use low dose daily CCNU for one of my own dogs with an intestinal cancer. I had to stop the CCNU after 2 months because her liver couldn't handle it. I also treated one dog that an oncologist had started on a higher dose for lymphosarcoma in his mouth. The tumor went into remission but his platelets crashed so low that he started bleeding and couldn't recover. I have used this drug many times and those are the only 2 dogs that had major problems. Like any chemo drug CCNU can sometimes cause nausea or low white cell counts.
Pam
Thanks so much everyone. This is all good info. I have such mixed emotions about switching to another drug after our debacle with Palladia.
I noticed after I had posted it had a little blurb at the bottom that I must have setup and can't figure out how to edit at the moment, but I will figure that out. But Butchey has had the following treatments:
Amp 6/14/2011. Adriamycin (sp?) 5 rounds (every 3 weeks) from summer 2011 to Nov 2011. After that we did a Cytoxan/Piroxicam/Doxycycline metronomic protocol that worked very well until the Piroxicam ran its course on his stomache in April 2012. We were off, trying to rest his stomache, and another HSA lump popped up on back of his neck, removed surgically June 2012. Lung mets first showed in July 2012. Tried Palladia - didn't work so well, lots of bad side effects. Second lung met showed up in Aug 2012. Went back to Cytoxan and used Deramaxx instead of Piroxicam. Sept/October 2012 - first lung met seems stable, second lung met doubled in size. Added I'm Yunity to his treatment plan. Added Doxycycline to protocol. Dec 31, 2012 - first lung met still seems stable. Second lung met grew 1 cm. New lumps under left ear that was aspirated and is classic HSA.
Please pardon any drug spelling errors.
I just feel like we have whacked his body with so much as far as chemo drugs go. I'm afraid of pushing the limits and I'm afraid of not doing enough.
Sigh Sigh Sigh 
Butchey Hudson Dx with HSA (knee joint) 5/19/2011. Amp on 6/14/2011. 26 glorious months of ampuversaries. Earned his wings 9/9/2013. Forever curled up in my heart.
doggiemomma9 said
I noticed after I had posted it had a little blurb at the bottom that I must have setup...
Are you referring to your signature that appears beneath all your forum posts? It currently reads:
Butchey Hudson Dx with HSA (knee joint) 5/19/11 Amp on 6/14/11 5 rounds of adriamycin Biting back at cancer
To edit that, visit your Forums profile anytime via the Profile button at the top of the forums and go to the Signature tab. Keep it short, or all the text may not fit. You might consider adding a link to Butchey's blog for more details.
Hope this helps!
Tripawds Founders Jim and Rene
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