preview

Flv Case Studies

Better Essays

Mesentery, Mesenteric Lymph Nodes, Kidneys, and Heart: Multicentric Lymphoma
Liver: Hepatic Lipidosis

Etiology:
The etiology of lymphoma in cats is, for the most part, not very well understood. Historically, lymphoma went hand in hand with Feline Leukemia Virus (FeLV), but in recent years the prevalence of FeLV has decreased due to vaccinations and antigen screening tests. Thus the FeLV associated mediastinal and/or multicentric T-cell lymphocyte lymphoma, mostly seen in FeLV positive young cats ages (2-3 years old), has decreased in incidence, and instead there has been a rise in cases of non-FeLV associated alimentary lymphoma seen in older cats (9-10 years). Feline Immunodeficiency Virus (FIV) positive cats have a 6x increase in developing …show more content…

A wide range of nonspecific hematologic and serum biochemical abnormalities can be seen in feline lymphoma, and thus the CBC/Chem are not diagnostic. Some common abnormal findings though are anemia (normocytic, normochromic, nonregenerative), leukocytosis, neutrophilia, abnormal lymphoid cells in peripheral blood, and thrombocytopenia. Lymphopenia is noted more often then lymphocytosis. Serum chemistry may show abnormalities related to organ system involvement, such as elevations in blood urea nitrogen and serum creatinine that can occur secondary to renal infiltration by neoplastic cells. Liver specific enzymes (ALP, ALT), and bilirubin elevations may been see due to neoplastic effects on hepatic architecture. Hypercalcemia can be seen as a result of PTH-rp production by the neoplastic cells, but is uncommon in cats. Hypoalbuminemia can be seen with the alimentary …show more content…

The World Health Organization has developed a staging system (chart below), that can contribute but not solely be used for prognosis. Prognosis must be made using overall patient condition, disease stage, FeLV/FIV status, clinical signs, and response to treatment. Positive prognosis factors that have been noted in cats include complete response to therapy, negative FeLV status, early clinical stage, no clinical signs (substage a), and addition of Doxorubicin to treatment protocol. Chemotherapy is currently the gold-standard for treatment, but response to therapy depends on the anatomic presentation of the lymphoma. For animals with lymphoma that do not undergo chemotherapy treatment, the mean survival time is 4-6 weeks. For multicentric lymphoma in cats, several different Chemotherapy protocols exist but the COP based protocol with the addition of Doxorubicin is recommended. Chemotherapy for multicentrc lymphoma has a 50-80% response rate and a mean survival time of 6

Get Access