Chemo for lung cancer?

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Heather & Angel (GA)

Heather & Angel (GA)

Member Since 2010
One of my civvies, Zoe, has just been dx with a primary lung tumor (adenocarcinoma, I think the vet said). Now we have to decide whether to do chemotherapy. I haven't had the consultation with the oncologist yet, so I don't know what the specific choices will be, but Zoe has a history of unusual problems already. In 2006, she developed lymphoma in one of her 3rd eyelids. We opted for surgery without chemo, because the vet said that even with chemo, she would almost certainly only live another year at most, and we didn't want to ruin her quality of life by making her feel sick. She also didn't show evidence that it had spread. Then in 2009, she developed the same type of lymphoma in her other 3rd eyelid. Again, we opted for surgery, but didn't do chemo, since again there was no evidence of spreading.

During the past several months, Zoe had started drinking and peeing a lot, and blood work showed early signs of CRF. Then over the last couple of months, she started coughing a lot, like a hairball cough, but showed no other symptoms. An x-ray showed a mass on her lung, but it wasn't favorable for a needle biopsy so we opted for surgical removal of the tumor. The biopsy report just came back, showing that it's this totally different type of cancer, and said that the surgeon seems to have gotten all of the tumor out and the lymph nodes around it showed no cancer cells.

So here we are... Zoe is 16, and she's already lived for years past 2 previous cancer dx without chemo. When the vet was discussing options before the surgery, she said that for these types of lung tumors, there's not much evidence that chemo helps, so they generally don't do it. But she later discussed it with their oncologist, who said that she might recommend chemo in Zoe's case. I looked on the VSSO website, and they say that only 25-35% of cats with this type of cancer have regional metastasis, but about 50% have distal metastasis, so I assume that means that even though the local lymph nodes didn't show signs of cancer cells, she could still have them in her body somewhere.

I don't know what to do. I want her last months or years to be as happy as possible, meaning that I don't want to make her more miserable with chemo, especially if it's not going to help. Also, her kidneys are already starting to fail, so I don't want to do anything to hasten their demise. But I'm afraid that she's running out of miracles. :sad:

Does anyone have experience with chemo (or not) for this type of lung tumor?

Thanks!
 
I am so sorry to here this dx for Zoe, as I just went through it with my civie Onyx. We opted not to go the chemo route with him because 1) he was already 17 about to turn 18 and 2) because even if we had gone for the chemo the vet felt it would only give us a few more months with him anyhow as this type is very fast growing and will basically just "show up" elsewhere in the body. So for us at least we opted to just love him like crazy, spoil him rotten and keep him as comfortable as possible until he was ready to leave us. We got a really great month and a half with him before he told us it was time for him to say goodbye. However in his case he wasn't a good canidate for surgery either because of where his tumor was in his chest.

Mel, Maxwell, Autumn & The Fur Gang
 
I'm sorry your sweet girl has been through so much. My Seasaidh had primary lung carcinoma. It was a pretty large tumor when we discovered it and surgery was not recommended for him. We didn't do a needle biopsy either, so I don't know if his lung cancer was an adenocarcinoma. Chemo was suggested so I decided to try it. The veterinary oncologist said that the chemo did help to shrink the tumor some, but unfortunately the cancer had metastasized (regionally). He went downhill and had to be PTS almost two weeks later. I believe that if I had caught the cancer earlier then Seasaidh would have had a better chance. He was beginning to live on borrowed time himself, narrowly escaping from cancer earlier (diffuse iris melanoma, hadn't become malignant but was going to according to his eye vet).

I don't know what Seasaidh's age was as he had been a feral, but it was estimated that he was around 14 when he got his wings. From when I discovered the tumor to the time of his death, it was about 1.5 months.

If Zoe is doing well enough for chemo and the vet recommends it, then I would try it. I will keep you and Zoe in my prayers. Please keep us updated on her.
 
Sorry to read this about yor sweet Zoe. I would get a consult with the oncologist and see what they say. Like if Zoe is really a good candidate for chemo and what is the prognosis with it and without it. I really do wish all the quality time in the world with your Zoe.
 
I'm sad to see your baby has this.

I had an 8 year old kitty with lymphoma in the bone. We found it by accident and thought we found it early, so we did amputation of the affected leg and chemo. The estimated lifespan from diagnosis was 6 months; she made it 9 months. The cancer invaded her kidneys and caused renal failure. She hated chemo, always got major diarrhea and vomiting from it, and hated being at the vet for the day. I don't think I'd put any of mine through that again, I'd just do palliative care.

Also, I discovered they don't treat for cure, they treat for control of the condition.
 
Also, Seasaidh did not get sick from his chemotherapy. He would spend 45 mins at the hospital getting intravenous chemo and then we'd come home. His appetite would be a little low for the rest of the day, but he seemed to bounce back the next morning. He didn't experience any vomiting or diarrhea.
 
Our civvie, Midgie, had the caudal lobe of her left lung removed on June 25 of last year. It was a well defined primary tumor. She came thru the surgery with flying colors and our doc recommended against chemo. He said he was confident all of the cancer was removed. Instead he wants her to have follow up X-rays every 3 months. She had her 6 month X-ray a couple of weeks ago and her lungs are completely clean. She's a tiny girl, less than 6 lbs, so I was terrified of her having surgery. Today, you'd never know she's missing a third of her lung.

She didn't have any other medical issues when she was diagnosed. She really wasn't showing any symptoms (at least according to the husband and the doc). I'm pretty in tune with our girls and my gut was telling me something wasn't right, so I took her in and asked for a full work up. The x-ray showed a 1.5 cm tumor. By the time it was removed a month later, it had grown to 2cm.

I'm very happy that our doc recommended against the chemo. I don't want to pump them full of drugs unless absolutely necessary, especially something as extreme as chemo.

ETA: I forgot to mention that she was 11 at the time of the surgery.
 
Midgie's story seems very similar to Zoe's, right down to the fact that it was a tumor on the left caudal lobe (not that I really know what that means). After I posted the message this afternoon, I got a copy of the pathology report, which said it was a bronchoalveolar adenocarcinoma, grade 2. This report said that in one study, median survival was 250 days, but it isn't clear if that is for cats who had the tumor removed or for those who didn't. I assume it's for those who did have the surgery, but it's a question I'll have to ask the oncologist.

Did the vet say anything about the chance that Midgie might have distal metastasis like I read about on the VSSO website? I was dismayed to see the 50% stats on that.
 
The caudal lobe (section) of the lung is at the end of the lung closest to the belly, as opposed to the head. I consider it to be the bottom part of the lung.

This is off the top of my head...I'd have to dig for notes on it. The tumor was well-differentiated with clean margins and no indication of it having spread any place else and there was no lymph involvement. After the ultrasound there was concern of some vascular involvement but that turned out to be wrong. Dr. H said this was the best possible outcome. We caught it very early, before she was symptomatic. She wasn't coughing or anything, just one day I thought she was breathing heavier than normal. Two vets and my husband stll tell me that I'm wrong about that and I was imagining it. All I know is something in me said "Get that little bug to the vet!" so I did. Luckily I have a vet who will humor me when it comes to non invasive things like x-rays. We also found out she has scoliosis. Go figure!

I don't think he said anything specific about distal metastasis. So she'll keep getting her x-rays every 3 months and will get toted off to the vet any time my gut tells me something wonky is going on.
 
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