Fibrosarcoma

[Janet529]

Haven't been on this board for so long, and am sorry to say I'm here again looking for help. My Samantha was just diagnosed with fibrosarcoma or mesenchymal cancer. I've checked for info on it and can find nothing for this type of cancer in dogs. Has anyone dealt with this before? My vet is not optimistic and I won't know anything more until she goes for staging on Monday.

Any input is greatly appreciated!
thanks
Janet

[mmgy]

Where is it? My Rocky had a fibrosarcoma on his spleen, and my understanding was that a fibrosarcoma was a fibrous cancerous mass with no apparent relation to anything else. Rocky's was successfully removed.

I found this quote:
"Mammary gland tumors can be either malignant (cancerous) or benign (non-cancerous) and arise from the different types of tissues (epithelial or glandular tissues, and mesenchymal or connective tissues) in the mammary gland. The most common types are tumors from the glandular tissues and include adenoma, carcinoma, and adenocarcinoma. Half of all mammary gland tumors are benign and can be treated successfully with surgery alone. "

Does that sound like hers?

[Janet529]

Unfortunately, no, that does not sound like Samantha's. The vet did tell me these tumors are typically found first on the spleen and can travel from there. Samantha's is on the skin - it was a lipoma (fatty tumor) last year that has changed quickly in the past few weeks. The vet aspirated it Thursday night and it is already refilling with fluid. It is the quick change that is causing the vet the most concern.
I went over every inch of her after we got home from the vet and found two very very small lumps in the skin around her ribs so I am very worried. She will go for extensive blood work, xrays and ultrasound if needed on Monday. What scared me the most was that the vet said they wouldn't even biopsy this type of tumor if there was any indication it wasn't contained - and she was not hopeful because of the change in the tumor. Evidently even opening her up for a biopsy would only quicken the growth.
Just sounds so depressing :(
Thanks for your input!

[mmgy]

Rocky had cancer three times, the fibrosarcoma on his spleen was the middle one. They removed it pretty easily, and nothing showed up again for nearly a year.

That quote in my first post came from a website I recently found, www.caninecancerawareness.com. I've not studied it too thoroughly yet, but it looks like a pretty good site.

We've posted tons in the last few months about general cancers and special diets. So if you do a search for that here you'll find a lot.

From what you've said, I think the ultrasound may be the most enlightening thing you can do at this point. Of course, it can also be the scariest! How old is Samantha?

We'll be thinking good thoughts for you! I've got some more websites saved....if I see any references I'll post them.

[Janet529]

Thanks again for the help - I've joined the CanineswithCancer group at yahoo and found some good links. Samantha is about 7 years old - probably closer to 8. I've had her for about 4 years and she was at least 3 when I got her. I'm just trying to learn as much as I can before her testing on Monday. I'll start pouring through the canine cancer awareness site tonite. I've read every cancer-related post I could find here already and didn't see this link so I wanted to share:


http://www.merckvetmanual.com/mvm/index.jsp

Listing of bodily systems, diseases, etc. Good reference material.

Thanks for the good thoughts!

[mmgy]

Don't forget to come back and tell us what the vet said today.