Traditional Chinese Veterinary Medicine Approach to Canine Splenic Hemangiosarcoma

Abstract

Hemangiosarcoma (HSA) is a highly malignant tumor of endothelial cells that comprises approximately 50% of all splenic neoplasms in dogs. It commonly afflicts older, large breed dogs, particularly Golden retrievers, Labrador retrievers and German shepherds. Affected dogs often present for evaluation of acute collapse due to tumor rupture and abdominal hemorrhage. Standard treatment of canine splenic HSA includes splenectomy and subsequent chemotherapy. There are several reported chemotherapy protocols, most of which involve the use of intravenous doxorubicin. Survival rates for dogs with splenic HSA are generally poor. Treatment with surgery (splenectomy) only provides a mean survival of 1-3 months with affected dogs generally succumbing to recurrent and/or metastatic disease. Surgery and chemotherapy improve survival times slightly to a median survival time of 4-6 months. Experiential experience by the authors have noted a better clinical outcome can be achieved using traditional Chinese veterinary medicine (TCVM) treatment. Dogs treated with splenectomy and TCVM have survival times of 3-4 years with a good quality of life. The TCVM treatment survival time for the HSA dogs without splenectomy averages 11-13 months. The primary TCVM Patterns of splenic HSA are Qi Deficiency, Blood Deficiency, and Blood Stasis. This paper will review TCVM Pattern diagnosis and treatment of HSA in dogs along with a case series of 4 dogs.