I thank you for your kind words & good advices.

I used the Advanced Search to find other fibrosarcoma cases & found interesting discussions, but I would still have a couple of questions for other pawrents of fibrosarcoma patients.  Have you done chemo? Chemotherapy indeed is optional and to my understanding especially with fibrosarcoma the amputation is sometimes considered sufficient treatment, but on the other hand, there’s no guarantees that it couldn’t metastasize. Of course, there’s no guarantees with chemo, either.  At the moment I’m inclined to go through the chemotherapy so that I can be sure I’ve done everything possible to improve my boy’s chances, but I would still like to hear experiences of others.

Our oncologist also told me that some dogs seem to have a tendency to develop fibrosarcomas and in some cases new tumours without any connection to the previous one have later occurred in some other part of the body. I’m just wondering if this is common, or are there fibrosarcoma survivors who have lived years without recurrence of the disease?

I’m most grateful if you can answer my questions.

It has been quite a while since I last wrote here, but I thought I might share our latest news. I have found it very helpful to read stories of others so maybe ours will help someone in turn.

As a reminder, last time I wrote it was two months from Razbeg’s amputation and according to pathology report he had fibrosarcoma, but we were waiting another pathology report. We had just done x-rays of lungs and ultrasound for abdominal area and there were no traces of metastases. I was pondering whether to do chemo or not, but as Razbeg still had an open wound it was not possible to start chemo yet although I would have decided to do so.

Well, after that we got results of another pathology report and unfortunately they thought it was fibroblastic osteosarcoma rather than fibrosarcoma. That was exactly what I had feared, since I had read that sometimes fibroblastic osteosarcoma is mistaken for fibrosarcoma. Our oncologist strongly recommended chemotherapy since osteosarcoma was now suspected. It was already 4 months from amputation when we finally started chemo, but the x-rays were taken again, and everything still looked good.

All in all, Razbeg had 4 rounds of carboplatin. He didn’t have any side effects, but his blood levels dropped every time so that the treatment could only be given every 4rth week instead of planned 3-week cycle. Last time his lungs were x-rayed once again, and everything continued to be ok.

After that we had three options: either we could have two more rounds of carboplatin (our oncologist said there is no evidence that 6 was any more efficient than 4), or we could do nothing and just follow the situation, or we could start giving cyclophosphamide at home. I chose the cyclophosphamide-option, as doing nothing didn’t feel good and as I thought that maybe using different drugs could be more effective than just having couple rounds more of carboplatin. At the moment Razbeg has only had his first dose of cyclophosphamide so I don’t know yet how it will suit him. After a month we will have a check up at the vets (if everything goes well and there is no urgent need to go earlier).

I naturally hope that Razbeg will live as long as possible but I’m already so grateful and so pleased because I know I made the right decision when I decided we will go through the treatments. Razbeg has adapted to life on three legs perfectly, has been happy and he had his 10^th birthday last week. Next week he will have his 9 months ampuversary.  It was such a dark and sad period of our life when he was diagnosed with this awful disease, so now I’m unspeakably happy that he is still here, enjoying his life and being the same lovely personality he always has been.

Thank you for your kind words!

Yes, Razbeg's on metronomics . He gets one capsule daily, and also diuretic medicine to prevent hemorrhagic cystitis. The vet adviced me to add water in his food and I must check his urine for blood weekly with test strips. I also give him watermelon, cucumber, green beans etc., since they contain lot of water & have other health benefits, too. I'm still a bit worried about hemorrhagic cystitis, but from what I've understood, most dogs tolerate cyclophosphamide pretty well, and at least we should be able to detect possible problems early, since I test his urine every week.