intestinal lymphoma- treatment question

Hi folks,

My cat Charlie has been diagnosed with small cell, slow-growing
lymphoma throughout the small intestine and in the portal tracts of the
liver. I've been given two basic options by our vet, a
gastroentestinal specialist. One is chemo injection treatments to see
if it goes into remission. He said this approach is very effective for
aggressive cancer, but not so much the slow-growing kind.

The other, more conservative approach, would be steroid therapy and an
accolading agent (sp? can someone tell me what this is?). This would
amount to disease management. The vet favors the conservative
approach, and said that over the past few years it has become preferred
over chemo for this kind of lymphoma. There's a median survival rate
of 16-18 months. Charlie has some history with diabetes (transient),
so it will be tricky with the steroids. We may have to try different
kinds.

Has anyone else been faced with the same options? Has anyone done the
chemo for slow-growing lymphoma, and has it worked? If you've done
the conservative approach, does the cat seem to at least feel better?

Thanks for your time.
Caroline

Sorry about Charlie's DX. My Mario was dx'd with small-cell intestinal
Lymphoma in September 04. He is also diabetic. He is being treated with
Leukeran, an oral chemo drug. He gets 2 mg M, W & F. One standard
treatment for this type of lymphoma is Leukeran and prednosone. However,
Mario's oncologist will not use the prednosone because of his diabetes. The
prednosone can cause diabetes as well as make it worse. You might consider
joining Yahoo's feline lymphoma group.

--
Larry - Owned by ten cats
wrote in message
oups.com...
Hi folks,

My cat Charlie has been diagnosed with small cell, slow-growing
lymphoma throughout the small intestine and in the portal tracts of the
liver. I've been given two basic options by our vet, a
gastroentestinal specialist. One is chemo injection treatments to see
if it goes into remission. He said this approach is very effective for
aggressive cancer, but not so much the slow-growing kind.

The other, more conservative approach, would be steroid therapy and an
accolading agent (sp? can someone tell me what this is?). This would
amount to disease management. The vet favors the conservative
approach, and said that over the past few years it has become preferred
over chemo for this kind of lymphoma. There's a median survival rate
of 16-18 months. Charlie has some history with diabetes (transient),
so it will be tricky with the steroids. We may have to try different
kinds.

Has anyone else been faced with the same options? Has anyone done the
chemo for slow-growing lymphoma, and has it worked? If you've done
the conservative approach, does the cat seem to at least feel better?

Thanks for your time.
Caroline