Treatment of T cell lymphoma in dogs

Overall, canine lymphoma remains one of the most chemotherapy-responsive cancers in the dog. In addition to the stage and the substage of disease, T cell phenotype is the most consistently important prognostic factor. T cell lymphoma (TCL) in dogs is a heterogeneous disease; dogs with a separate entity of indolent TCL can have a considerably better prognosis than dogs with other forms of lymphoma, and indolent TCL may not always require immediate treatment. In contrast, high-grade TCL is an aggressive disease, and when treated with CHOP-based protocols, dogs with this high-grade TCL have a complete remission rate as low as 40 per cent, relapse earlier and have shorter survival time than dogs with a comparable stage, high-grade B cell lymphoma. This review describes the different disease entities that comprise canine TCL, discusses prognosis for each and treatment options that appear to give the best outcomes.