Oral Melanoma My Baby Just Diagnosed

[Guest mar3]

My beautiful Carly was just diagnosed with oral melanoma today. I am just sick. She had a dental and the dentist noticed a lesion that he biopsied last week He is getting me a consult with oncologist soon. I read all kinds of stuff and crap online and trying to sort it all out. ANyone have any info or experience or advice? She is doing well and getting lots of love.

I appreciate your help and please think good thoughts for my baby Carly.

[MrAlexTheDog]

our first greyhound, alex, was diagnosed with an amelanotic malignant melanoma that grew between two of his lower incisors. surgery was really the only viable option. he had several lower front teeth and part of his lower jaw removed. his lower lip was then stitched over the hole. unless you looked under his mouth you'd never know he had had surgery.

 

fortunately, his margins were clear because my wife caught it early. the tumor never came back. he just drooled a little more when he waited for food or treats.

 

hoping for the best for your carly...

[ahicks51]

Well, there's some good news- IF it's the same type of cancer. There's a melanoma vaccine- and it's a "curative" vaccine, not just for prevention.

 

http://www.amcny.org/technology/melanomavaccine.aspx

 

http://www.veterinarypracticenews.com/vet-...itional-ok.aspx

 

I know one person whose rottie was treated with this vaccine at one of the first places to use it experimentally. In the case of her dog, it worked. If your vet is not familiar with it for whatever reason, it's produced by Merial (which should be abundantly clear in the press releases above!), and if they STILL don't know about it, I'll find all the information they need.

 

There may be better data now that it's out, but the life expectancy went from 1-5 months without the vaccine to a median survival time of 389 days in one study.

 

Let us know how it comes out. Best wishes.

[Guest momto5greys]

Melanoma is a nasty thing but try to stay calm. Take it a step at a time that's all you can do because you are going on information overload. I know you feel like you are batting around in the dark.

 

One of my girls was diagnosed in January with amalinotic malignant melanoma.

 

She started coughing in December just before her annual check up. We did chest x-rays and they were a little fuzzy but nothing that you wouldn't expect to see with old dog lungs. Cammi is 9. The vet thought maybe she had a little bronchitis and put her on 2 weeks of clavomox. It did nothing. I scheduled her dental with the proviso that the vet look down her throat. That's when she found the mass and did the biopsy.

 

We went to the University of Illinois and we discussed her treatment options and they were radiation and a new melanoma vaccine that they have been having a lot of success with. This was the path that we were going to take.

 

Our story goes awry awaiting our 4th and final radiation treatment. At our first visit the U of I vets wanted a sample that they could test just to make sure they were treating a melanoma. So we contacted the original lab and had slides sent to the U of I. The day of our 4th treatment they told me that their pathologists (3 of them) said she had a squamous cell carcinoma, however the mass in her throat had resolved itself with the radiation. Supposedly squamous cell carcinoma's don't respond to radiation.

 

I had them do the 4th treatment and we contacted the lab again and had another sample sent to the University of Colorado. They came back with the same diagnosis as the U of I, squamous cell carcinoma. Personally I think perhaps the original lab had some sloppy record keeping and after their initial diagnosis got some stuff labeled wrong. Of course there is no way for me to prove that. So now instead of the melanoma vaccine we wanted to get something on board to hopefully delay the metastatic nature of the disease and she is currently undergoing chemo therapy.

 

She is doing very well and at this point seems to be cancer free. She has her next and final treatment June 4th and they will be doing chest x-rays at that time as well.

 

If I had it to do over again, I probably would have taken her to Ohio State University, but being in Illinois, U of I was closer.

 

This is all I can tell you. So I hope it helps.

 

Good luck

[Guest argolola]

Prayers for your sweet baby.

[Guest greybookends]

:hope :hope :hope

[Guest greyhound1]

:hope :hope

[patricia]

Sending prayers for your sweet baby. Our Angel LaceyLaine had a nasty abdominal melanoma that required 2 very radical surgeries. She actually did very well for 3 years and then she was diagnosed with Lymphoma. Try not to panic and go over your options and decide what is best for your sweet girl.

[Guest Machbragal]

Adding my prayers -- please keep us posted.

[MerlinsMum]

I'm so sorry to hear this. I have not been through it, so I have no advice to give... just sending lots of good thoughts, and I will be keeping my fingers crossed for you and your girl. :goodluck

 

:grouphug

[Guest paulamariez]

I am so sorry to hear about your sweet Carly's diagnosis. At least after reading the above posts, it seems there is much to hope for! I am sending lots of prayers, love and light to your precious Carly, for a quick and complete healing with no complications. Tiger, Bueller and Domino are sending Carly some healing doggie kisses as well!

[Burpdog]

Sending lots of prayers.

 

Do they know how invasive it is?

[Guest formercatlady]

No advice...just and

[Guest mar3]

Thank you all for your kind words and info and advice. It is very much appreciated. Her lesion was small only 3 mm but I have yet to see the oncologist. My appt. is next Wednesday. I am worried this is too long to wait. I've read a lot about the vaccine and am lucky she is a patient at UW Vet school where the original study began. I just wish they would hurry up and see us. I am hoping they can just excise the lesion and excess tissue around it and give her the vaccine. I will not opt for radical jaw bone removal or radiation or chemo. I don't want her to suffer. She is my baby.

I know you all can relate. She just isn't a dog. Thank you all for listening and responding.

 

[ahicks51]

3mm is a small lesion. From the description, it sounds likely that an excision followed by treatment with the vaccine has a good pronosis.

[Burpdog]

Think positively! It does sound small That is good news.

[Guest mar3]

I made a call and requested (force was needed) that an oncologist call me and give me 5 minutes. He was very informative and way More optimistic than the dentist was. He seems to think that there is a big chance she can be cured with excision and the vaccine. I have stopped crying today and am getting myself strong mentally to get us through this. That call gave me the hope that I needed. She is too precious to me. Thanks to all again. Keep Carly in your thoughts.

[Guest momto5greys]

I'm glad you got to talk to the oncologist. Since they see this sort to of thing daily, just talking to them can put your mind at ease.

 

Just to let you know, Cammi has not suffered with the radiation or the chemo. If asked prior to her treatments if I would do something like that, I probably would have said "no", but due to the location of her mass, she wasn't a canidate for surgery and we had no other option. I had to give her a chance and she's doing greyt!

 

I hope Carly does as well!

 

 

[ahicks51]

The dentist probably isn't up on state-of-the-art like the oncologist in this sort of thing.

 

You might want to see the news video on the vaccine- Lori is an acquaintance of mine, and her rottie is the dog I alluded to above.

 

http://www.kpho.com/video/13744207/index.html

 

The story's almost a year old, back when it was brand-new.

[RobinM]

Good thoughts and prayers for your baby girl.

[Guest LynnM]

Yuck... mouth cancers are nasty. Pam's old guy, Isaac had surgery for a squamous cell carcinoma over a year ago, and has been doing great. It did take 2 surgeries, and there's a small hole left in the side of his mouth, but as long as the dog isn't a nursing puppy, they can compensate for a hole just fine. The vets also applied a bloodroot paste to the site before reversing the anesthesia. This is a bit controversial because some people have tried it on human cancers and darn near burnt parts of their face off, but if used carefully, it is effective against SCC. Don't know about melanoma, though. Our vets aren't too into alternative medicine, but this is one thing that they do swear by, if for no other reason than that there isn't much else you can do for it.

 

Lynn