Hi Max,

I just found this forum and see that your Erik was diagnosed well over a year ago with Squamous Cell Carcinoma. I pray you still have him with you.

My dog was diagnosed with frontal sinus Squamous Cell Carcinoma on 3/2/09. We have done surgery, 3 chemos, radiation, a TKI drug called Gleevec, Prioxicam, and a local chemo called cisplatin. I also have him on a grain free diet with 25% cancer fighting vegetables as his carb source and 75% meat as a protien source. I also give him a max amount of fish oil per day. I have thrown everything possible at his cancer. The latest was the radiation. I pray so much that the radiation did it because nothing else successfully cured him. We should know in a month when we can do another CT scan.

I also found out about an amazing sounding treatment that I would like to share with you in case you do still have your Erik. I have not researched it much yet, and the limited info I have found says it is only available in California, however, that could be old and perhaps it is available elsewhere now. Below is a brief explination of the treatment I just discovered today that I have copied and pasted directly from the source.

Additional Treatment Regimens
A new and promising treatment for SCC is called Photo Dynamic Therapy. It involves the use of a laser beam to selectively destroy cancerous tissue only. An injection of photosensitive chemical is given to a pet that has SCC. The only cells that absorb this chemical are the cancerous ones. It is only these cells that are destroyed by the laser, the laser beam harmlessly passes through the normal cells that do not absorb the photosensitive chemical. If one of our doctors feels that this therapy is appropriate, they will let you know. It is considered experimental therapy, and is performed locally only at the Beckman Laser Institute at the University of California at Irvine, on a referral basis only.

I would love to hear back from you and maybe we can share our stories with each other.

Sincerely,

Jackie and Bremen

Jackie

I am really sorry to hear about your pets illness. Unfortunately I lost my beloved boy on 20th Feb 2009. After a 7 1/2 month battle, the cancer had spread into his upper palet and was dislodging all his teeth. the bleeding from his nose and mouth was getting worse, and I was fearing that he may even suffer a 'bleed out' where we wouldnt be able to stop the bleeding it was getting that bad, the tumour had completely engulfed his nose and he could only breath through his mouth. But despite everything, he was still my darling boy, I watched him go out from the house on the morning of 20th Feb, with my husband and son, they where going for one last walk, he walked between them with his tail in the air and a spring in his step they came back alone.............

I didnt want him to go any further and start to suffer and be scared. That was the hardest decision of my entire life. Oh boy did I love that dog, he was my heart dog. I think about him every day, and I know hes still with me now and I know that hes guiding my two new baby boys - Beau and Luca, who are now 6 months old and where born 18th and 21st Feb.

I really do wish you the very very best of luck, and I hope you get lots more time with your boy, than I did with mine.

Hi, thank you for your response. I am so very sorry to hear that you lost your Erik. The way you speak of him is exactly how I feel about my Bremen. He is so special, we have such a deep connection. It is so hard to watch them go through such a terrible illness. I have been dealing with this for almost seven months myself now and I fear I don't have a lot of time left with him. I look at the CT scans and the progression and I have been able to see how fast it is growing and I predicted that I might lose him in September. I hope I am wrong. We got him radiation treatments which are supposed to get him an extra 6 months to a year, but there is only a 60% chance that it will work.

Again, I am so sorry to hear what you went through with Erik. I am happy to hear though that you have adpoted two little guys with whom you can share lots of love and doggie kisses! And I know what you mean, like you with Erik, Bremen will always be with me in my heart.

Jackie

Hello! Your story sounds just like mine. I have a black lab mix, he is about 11 1/2 yrs old. He was just diagnosed. I am still waiting on complete details regarding the cancer and treatment options. I would like to know how your treatment worked out for your golden.

Very Sad to read and hope you can get help. does anyone have any pictures of this? knowing what to look for is a big heads up.

Mo

My dog Dylan, was diagnosed almost two years ago with squamous cell carcinoma. After unsuccessful laser surgery, he underwent 4 rounds of chemo with carboplaytin, and an oral n-said piroxicam. He is still with me today, at almost 14 years of age and no signs of cancer on his nose. If you would like pictures of what his nose looked like before, during and after the chemo, please email me privately. I pray for the best for your dog, and for you, too.

Hi proofpawsitive,

I cannot figure out how to email you back privately so I hope this is okay. Your story sounds amazing that your dog is cancer free after such an aggressive type of cancer. So your dog has absolutely no cancer anymore?

We did carboplatin and Prioxicam with Bremen as well but did not have the success you got. We also did radiation and surgery. Unfortunately it is growing faster than ever and I think my days with him are very limited at this point. We are going to try one last thing (and reading your post gave me new hope to follow through with the plan) We are going to inject the tumor locally with a Carboplatin gel. He is getting to the point where I almost decided to just let him go and not put him through anything else, but after reading your post I decided I am going to keep him around a little longer with hopes that we can get a cure for him too with the Carboplatin gel.

Did your dog have tumor in his sinus as well as his nose?

Jackie

Thank you for your info. regarding Dylan. This is very helpful. The doctor had recommended radiation, but after reading about this on line, the location of the tumor does not appear to be a good spot for radiation. Plus the dr. is more than two hrs away. A dr. doing chemo is only 15 mins. away. I will seriously be looking into this.

Dear Jackie and vegchowfun,
I don't know the extent of both of your dogs cancer, but I can tell you a little bit more about Dylan's. When we first suspected cancer, he had a biopsy and ct scan of his nasal cavity. The cancer was contained to the exterior of his nose, and had not invaded his nasal cavity. We opted for laser surgery first, as it was the least invasive, only one round. He sailed through that, and we thought all was well. But 5 months later the cancer had returned. The vet who performed the laser surgery, along with his regular vet gave us absolutely no hope. After several days of crying, and looking at this wonderful dog who is truly my heart dog, I decided to contact the oncologist again. She wanted to see him, and discuss other options. The first was called, I think, a planectomy. Basically removal of his nose. She did not want this, and obviously, neither did we. We talked about radiation, but it is terribly invasive, and causes severe burns. So that left us with chemotherapy. I had researched long and hard and found a study about carboplatin and piroxicam as treatment for oral cancer in dogs, with a remarkable success rate, and when his oncologist said this is what we were going to do, I was elated. Dylan went through four rounds of chemo. He was a little sick and sleepy for a couple of days after each round, but we saw progress with each treatment. After the chemo was through, he stayed on the piroxicam, but mainly because he has some arthritis in his knees. His oncologist saw him every 4-6 weeks for several months, and after 10 months, said we don't have to bring him back for another six. She's never said he's in remission, or cancer free, but it's been almost 2 years since that first sore appeared on his nose. She says that he is a success case, and is very happy with his outcome. We don't know what's ahead, so we take every day as a blessing. It has been a huge learning experience, and I realized that I have to be Dylan's biggest advocate. If I knew that he was suffering, I would not have done what we did, but he was and still is enjoying life.

Proofpawsitive,

Thank you for the reply. My dog does have the tumor internally, however, the vet stated they normally don't see it this small. Right now it is really thin and goes about 1 1/2 inches into the nasal passageway. We have had the CT completed and it has not gone into his sinuses.

He just had a chest x-ray and lymph drainage last night to see if the cancer has spread. My husband also gave to the doctor what you wrote about Dylan's chemo treatment. He said that if chemo was recommended by the oncologist, that would be the method our vet would use.

Dylan's success has provided me some hope. Looking online to all the studies and stories made the outlook for this diagnosis incredibly grim. You story is a bright light for our family.

Thank you,
Krissy