Advice Needed Re Possible Nerve Sheath Tumor

[Guest brit1]

Hi, I am praying that the biopsy will be benign but trying to gather information in the meantime. My non grey 55lb lab/x 7yo had a small marble shaped lump on inside of front leg near elbow. They tried aspirating but inconclusive so he had surgery Thursday. I had hoped for a positive reaction from the vet but she mentioned it was hard to remove and because it is on the leg hard to take wide margins. I had the feeling she was telling me bad news This dog is my world. He came to me from a shelter in 2006 7months old. He has seen me through 2 deaths of dogs I adopted including a senior that passed in August that was 15yo, only had her for 2 years. Snugs means everything to me and I had hoped because I make all his food and do everything holistically that he would have a long life. I feel numb at the thought of his life being shortened and leaving me. He is also a therapy dog, such a calm sweet nature. If anyone has info regarding this possibly cancer please let me know, it will be appreciated. Have looked through the links on website. Thanks brit

[spottydog]

Hoping for the best. Love those lab crosses...

[Guest june]

Sending lots of prayers for both of you.

[macoduck]

My 9 y.o. senior, Possum, had a nerve sheath tumor on is left rear upper leg. It was the size of a softball. His original adopter dumped him with another group rather than returning to his original group or even bothering to have it treated. Because the tumor was so massive it took a long time to heal. Possum rarely fussed with the surgical area. He ended up with a large scar. Path report said margins were not totally clear. There was always the possibility that the tumor could return. If you are going to have a tumor, this isn't as bad as many. After being cleared for adoption, Possum was only in our home for 66 days before he was overcome by lymphoma.

[Burpdog]

I've had one experience and know of someone who had an experience.

 

Mine: vet removed it and since I was not going to do chemo, etc. I forgot about it (literally). That was not what finally took him in the end and he was two years past the removal.

 

The other person had it removed, it came back and it was removed and cleaned up with laser. Lasted gone much longer, but it did come back eventually.

[Guest brit1]

thank you all for the input, has helped me feel more hopeful brit

[Guest lynne893]

my husband had a nerve sheath tumor in his second vertebrae (i believe it's called a schwannoma).

 

i know you can't compare, but it wasn't a malignant tumor-- though problematic nonetheless because of where it was.

 

good luck with your pup.

[JJNg]

Nerve sheath tumors fall in the soft tissue sarcoma category. If that's what it is, the good thing is that these tumors have a fairly low potential for metastasis, although they are more likely to recur locally. As others have mentioned, some may not come back, or it may be a long time before it does. If you want to do more to try to prevent regrowth, or if there are incomplete margins, standard adjunctive therapy is to follow surgery with radiation. An alternate protocol is to do local injections of a chemo drug called 5FU in the area where the tumor was removed. Dr. Couto has had a lot of experience and excellent results with this treatment, but unfortunately nothing is published so most oncologists aren't familiar with it.

My whippet had a soft tissue sarcoma on the outside of his elbow this summer, and after he had surgery to remove it, we did the 5FU injections. Dr. Couto consulted with my local oncologist to provide the details of the protocol. Dr. Couto's unpublished results using local 5FU injections had equal, if not better, results than the traditional approach of radiation. He told me that if it was his own dog, he would do 5FU rather than radiation. An additional plus is that 5FU is much less expensive.

Edited December 15, 2013 by JJNg

[Guest brit1]

Just want to update and thank everyone for prayers. The biopsy revealed it is a Fibroma and not cancerous brit

[carronstar]

Congratulations on getting good news!