Abstract
Objective—To examine the effect of adjuvant doxorubicin chemotherapy on outcome in dogs with highgrade (grade 3) soft tissue sarcomas (HGSTSs).
Design—Retrospective case series.
Animals—39 dogs.
Procedures—Medical records of dogs with HGSTSs were reviewed. Dogs treated with surgery alone or receiving single-agent doxorubicin chemotherapy postoperatively were included in the study. Owners and referring veterinarians were contacted for followup information. Slides from histologic sections were reviewed to confirm the diagnosis of HGSTSs. Cases in which follow-up examination was not performed and radiation therapy or chemotherapy other than doxorubicin was administered were excluded.
Results—39 dogs met inclusion criteria. Twenty-one dogs received adjuvant doxorubicin. Tumor-, patient-, and treatment-related variables were not significantly associated with measured outcomes including local, metastatic, and overall disease-free intervals as well as survival time. Overall median disease-free interval was 724 days with a median survival time of 856 days for all dogs.
Conclusions and Clinical Relevance—Adjuvant doxorubicin-based chemotherapy did not benefit this population of dogs with HGSTSs. Outcome for visceral HGSTSs was similar to that of nonvisceral HGSTSs in these cases. (J Am Vet Med Assoc 2005;227:1442–1448)
