Clinical features, treatment options, and outcome in dogs with thymoma: 116 cases (1999–2010)

Abstract

Dogs with thymoma, even those with a large tumor burden or a paraneoplastic syndrome, had a good prognosis following surgery. Surgical treatment, tumor stage, and the presence of a second tumor at diagnosis influenced survival time.

Perioperative Mortality and Long‐Term Survival in 80 Dogs and 32 Cats Undergoing Excision of Thymic Epithelial Tumors

“…1 Surgical excision is the primary treatment for thymic neoplasms. A recent multi-institutional case series of thymomas in 84 dogs 11 reported an estimated median survival time after surgical excision of 635 days. Lack of tumor resection, advanced pathologic stage of disease, and the presence of a second neoplasm were associated with significantly shorter survival.…”

“…34 Consistent with these results, 5 of 8 dogs in the recent multi-institutional case series had a partial response to radiation therapy. 11 Reports on the efficacy of chemotherapy for thymoma are available for a small numbers of cases. 9,11,13,18 The goal of this study was report on perioperative mortality, long-term survival, causes of death, and prognostic factors for dogs and cats undergoing surgical excision of TETs.…”

“…Lack of tumor resection, advanced pathologic stage of disease, and the presence of a second neoplasm were associated with significantly shorter survival. 11 Earlier studies have provided postoperative followup for small numbers of dogs or cats. 9 14 respectively.…”

“…[9][10][11][12] Clinical signs may also result from paraneoplastic syndromes including myasthenia gravis 11,[13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23] or polymyositis in dogs and cats, 19,24 hypercalcemia in dogs, 11,13,25,26 and exfoliative dermatitis in cats. 24,[27][28][29][30][31] Concurrent non-thymic cancers 11,18 and T-cell lymphocytosis 32 have also been reported in dogs. Distant metastasis is uncommon in both species.…”

Advances in Video-Assisted Thoracic Surgery, Thoracoscopy

“…Traditionally, resection of cranial mediastinal masses (CMMs) has been accomplished via median sternotomy or intercostal thoracotomy. [11][12][13][14] Recently, a VATS approach to CMM resection in two dogs was reported. 15 A VATS approach to CMM resection is feasible and associated with low operative morbidity, although ultimate prognosis depends on the underlying disease.…”