Reo
Reo's story
Reo is a beautiful 4-year-old Hungarian Vizsla. At the beginning of December Reo’s family noticed that the lymph nodes under her chin seemed enlarged. Concerned they took her to their local vet. A sample was taken, and the family were shocked when the results returned compatible with lymphoma – a type of blood cancer that affects the immune system, and so she was referred to AURA.
Reo was still bright, happy and eating well, but she had started to retch overnight, and her lymph nodes had grown noticeably in the past few days before her initial consultation with Dr Quentin Fournier. Further samples were taken, and the results were consistent with high-grade lymphoma, the most common subtype of lymphoma in dogs. A few cancer cells were also detected in her blood, which was consistent with a stage V disease.
The main treatment for high-grade lymphoma is chemotherapy. Chemotherapy drugs kill the cells that are dividing. Rapidly progressive lymphomas usually respond very well to treatment, and chemotherapy is usually tolerated well in otherwise healthy patients. Whilst animal patients do not have the same degree of side effects to chemotherapy as humans, as the doses given are not as high, they can still experience side effects.
Our number one focus for treatment for all veterinary cancer is a good quality of life for as long as possible. AURA and the University of Surrey currently have two clinical studies looking at how the side effects of Chemotherapy can be better managed to ensure a good quality of life is maintained. One is giving patients Aspartame (commonly known as a sweetener alternative to sugar that some people us in their tea, coffee or sometimes food) to help reduce gastrointestinal issues that sometimes occurs with one commonly used Chemotherapy drug Irinotecan. The other is the development of a simple questionnaire to help owners recognise routine symptoms of the treatment and monitor their pet’s quality of life.
As you can see the treatment is not stopping Reo from living her best life! The team will continue to monitor Reo, and work with her family to make sure that she continue to live life to the full.
With your support we can fund further studies that will help us develop novel treatment options and ensure the best chance of successful treatment, whilst keeping our pets happy during treatment.