Actually research shows attack and support is basically same as nasal cancer protocol. You would likely need to do some of the conventional stuff though below
http://dognasalcancertreatmentforlucy.blogspot.com/2012/03/dog-cancer-supplements-and-herbs-i-use.html
Here is conventional treatment info:
TREATMENT OF OSTEOSARCOMA INVOLVES TWO ASPECTS: TREATING THE PAIN AND FIGHTING THE CANCER’S SPREAD.
How do we Treat the Pain?
Keep in mind that dogs are usually euthanized due to the pain in the affected bone. Treating the pain successfully will allow a dog to live comfortably.
Amputation of the LimbRemoval of the affected limb resolves the pain in 100% of cases. Unfortunately, many people are reluctant to have this procedure performed due to misconceptions.
- While losing a leg is handicapping to a human, losing one leg out of four does not restrict a dog's activity level. Running and playing are not inhibited by amputation once the surgical recovery period is over.
- While losing a limb is disfiguring to a human and has social ramifications, dogs are not self-conscious about their image. The dog will not feel disfigured by the surgery; it is the owner that will need to adjust to the dog’s new appearance.
- Median survival time for dogs who do not receive chemotherapy for osteosarcoma is 4 to 5 months from the time of diagnosis regardless of whether or not they have amputation. Do you want your dog's last 4 to 5 months to be painful or comfortable?
Limb-sparing techniques developed for humans have been adapted for dogs. To spare the limb and thus avoid amputation, the tumorous bone is removed and either replaced by a bone graft from a bone bank or the remaining bone can be re-grown through a new technique called bone transport osteogenesis. The joint nearest the tumor is fused (i.e., fixed in one position and cannot be flexed or extended.)
- Limb sparing cannot be done if more than 50% of the bone is involved by tumor or if neighboring muscle is involved.
- Limb sparing does not work well for hind legs or tumors of arm bone.
- Limb sparing works best for tumors of the forearm bone.
- Complications can include: Bone infection, implant failure, tumor recurrence, and fracture.
Radiation doses can be applied to the tumor in three doses (the first two doses should be given 1 week apart, the second two doses 2 weeks apart.) Improved limb function is usually evident within the first 3 weeks and typically lasts 4 months (many oncologists report a range of 0 to 19 months.) When pain returns, radiation can be re-administered for further pain relief if deemed appropriate based on the stage of the cancer at that time.
- When pain is relieved in the tumorous limb, there is an increase in activity that can lead to a pathologic fracture of the bone.
- Radiotherapy does not produce a helpful response in about one-third of patients. (Remember, amputation controls pain in 100% of cases but if amputation is simply not an option, there is a two out of three chance that radiotherapy will control the pain.)
Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs (NSAIDs)These are anti-inflammatory pain relievers developed for dogs: carprofen, etodolac, deracoxib, meloxicam, firocoxib, and tepoxalin. These are typically given once or twice daily in tablet form at home. The patient should have good liver and kidney function in order to take medications of this class.
BisphosphonatesThis class of drug has become the standard of care in humans with bone tumors yet bisphosphonates have not become a common part of veterinary practice for this condition. Bisphosphonates act by inhibiting bone destruction, which in turn helps control the pain and bone damage caused by the bone tumor. The most common bisphosphonate in use for dogs is pamidronate, which is given as an IV drip over two hours in the hospital every 3 to 4 weeks. In humans, an assortment of potential side effects have emerged (fever, muscle pain, nausea all lasting 1 to 2 days in up to 25% of patients, renal disease in certain situations, low blood calcium levels, jaw bone cell death); these issues so far have not panned out as problems for dogs and cats. Because bisphosphonate seem to be well tolerated, relatively inexpensive, and useful in numerous bone-destroying cancers, we expect to see this class of drug used more and more in small animal practice.
Narcotic Pain RelieversWhile these drugs do not have anti-inflammatory properties, they are well-known analgesics and have been used in an assortment of forms for thousands of years. They are particularly useful in chronic pain because they do not interact negatively with other pain relievers. Drowsiness is a potential side effect. Tramadol has been particularly popular as part of a drug combination for bone cancer pain but there are other narcotics that might also be considered.
Miscellaneous Supplemental Pain RelieversThere are two drugs that have surfaced as additional pain relievers for animals with chronic pain: gabapentin and amantadine. Gabapentin works on neurologic pain and is rapidly surfacing in the treatment of arthritis, surgical pain, and other chronic pain states. Amantadine works by reducing what is called wind up, a phenomenon where nerves become sensitized to pain leading to the experience of pain from stimuli that normally do not cause pain.
These different drugs are often given together to create meaningful pain relief to the osteosarcoma patient when amputation and radiotherapy are not going to happen.
How do we Treat the Cancer?
Osteosarcoma is unfortunately a fast-spreading tumor. By the time the tumor is found in the limb, it is considered to have already spread. Osteosarcoma spreads to the lung in a malignant process called metastasis. Prognosis is substantially worse if the tumor spread is actually visible on chest radiographs, so if chemotherapy is being considered, it is important to have chest radiographs taken.
- Chemotherapy is the only meaningful way to alter the course of this cancer.
- Young dogs with osteosarcoma tend to have shorter survival times and more aggressive disease than older dogs with osteosarcoma.
- Elevations of alkaline phosphatase, one of the enzymes screened on a basic blood panel, bode poorly. These dogs have approximately 50% of the survival times quoted below for each protocol.
- The presence of tumor in lymph nodes local to the leg being amputated also bodes poorly. In the study by Hillers et. al published in the April 15th, 2005 issue of the Journal of the AVMA, median survival was significantly longer (318 days vs. 59 days) in dogs where the tumor was not evident in local lymph nodes at the time of amputation.
- The median survival time with this therapy is 400 days.
- Survival at 1 year: 30% to 60%
- Survival at 2 years: 7% to 21%
- Giving less than 3 doses does not increase survival time (i.e., if one can only afford one or two treatments, it is not worth the expense of therapy)
- Cisplatin can be toxic to the kidneys and should not be used in animals with pre-existing kidney disease.
- Similar statistics to cisplatin but carboplatin is not toxic to the kidneys and can be used if the patient has pre-existing kidney disease.
- Carboplatin is substantially more expensive than cisplatin.
- The median survival time is 365 days.
- 10% still alive at 2 years.
- Toxic to the heart. An ultrasound examination is needed prior to using this drug as it should not be given to patients with reduced heart contracting ability.
Doxorubicin and Cisplatin in Combination (both given IV together every 3 weeks for four treatments)
- 48% survival at 1 year
- 30% survival at 2 years
- 16% survival at 3 years.
When a population is evaluated statistically, there are a number of ways the central tendency of the group can be evaluated. The median is the value at which 50% of the group falls above and 50% of the group falls below. This is a little different from the average of the group, though more people are familiar with this term. When you evaluate median survival times, you are looking at a 50% chance of surviving longer than the median (and a 50% chance of surviving less than the median).
What Does Chemotherapy Put my Dog Through?
Most people have an image of the chemotherapy patient either through experience or the media and this image typically includes lots of weakness, nausea, and hair loss. In fact, the animal experience in chemotherapy is not nearly as dramatic. After the pet has a treatment, you should expect 1 to 2 days of lethargy and nausea. This is often substantially palliated with medications like Zofran® (a strong antinausea drug commonly used in chemotherapy patients). These side effects are worse if a combination of drugs is used but the pet is typically back to normal by the third day after treatment.
Effectively, you are trading 8 days of sickness for 6 to 12 months of quality life. Hair loss is not a feature of animal chemotherapy. (YOU MUST BOOST IMMUNE SYSTEM AT SAME TIME!!!!!!)
Axial OsteosarcomaWhile osteosarcoma of the limbs is the classical form of this disease, osteosarcoma can develop anywhere there is bone. Axial osteosarcoma is the term for osteosarcoma originating in bones other than limb bones, with the most commonly affected bones being the jaws (both lower and upper). Victims of the axial form of osteosarcoma tend to be smaller, middle-aged, and females outnumber males two to one.
In the axial skeleton the tumor does not grow rapidly as do the appendicular tumors, thus leading to a more insidious course of disease. The tumor may be there for as long as two years before it is formally diagnosed. An exception is osteosarcoma of the rib, which tends to be more aggressive than other axial osteosarcomas.
Treatment for axial osteosarcoma is similar to that for the appendicular form: surgery followed by chemotherapy. There is one exception, that being osteosarcoma of the lower jaw. Because of the slower growth of the axial tumor and the ability to remove part or all of the jaw bone with little loss of function or cosmetic disfigurement, it has been reported that 71% of cases survived one year or longer with no chemotherapy at all.
Treating osteosarcoma is an area that not all veterinarians are comfortable performing. Discuss with your veterinarian whether referral to a specialist would be best for you and your pet.
