Bone Cancer in Dogs More than Just Amputation

Bone cancer is a common problem in the middle aged to older dog and needs to be ruled out in any patient whose lameness is unresponsive to symptomatic treatment, or who presents with unexplained bone pain. amputation and chemotherapy remain the gold-standard for this condition as by far-and-away we have the most experience in predicting outcome following this treatment, and amputation also remains the fastest and most reliable means of eliminating bone pain. However not all clients or all patients go down this route for a variety of financial, orthopedic, neurologic or social reasons. increasingly owners are considering alternatives such as analgesic protocols, coarse fractionated radiotherapy, chemotherapy options, stereotactic radiosurgery for limb sparing, and conventional allograft or endoprosthesis surgical limb-sparing options.

Canine osteosarcoma can arise in the appendicular skeleton, axial skeleton, in extraos- seus tissues (e.g. kidney, subcutaneous tissue, primary lung) or parosteal locations. appendicular sites are most common and 2/3 tumors arise in the font limbs. it is per- haps no coincidence that 2/3 of a dog’s weight also is supported by the front limbs.

The cause of osteosarcoma is not known, but is likely related to an inactivation of the tumour suppressor gene, or amplification of proto-oncogenes.

Radiological features include osteoblastic or osteolytic change, cortical lysis, loss of fine trabecular detail in the metaphyseal area, periosteal reaction (‘Codman’s triangle’), new bone (‘sunburst’), soft tissue swelling, typically no crossing of the joint and a moderate transition zone to normal medulla. [...]