Association between weight change during initial chemotherapy and clinical outcome in dogs with multicentric lymphoma

The majority of the known prognostic factors in dogs with lymphoma have been evaluated before treatment commences or at the time of diagnosis. Prognostic factors evaluated during the initial phase of treatment are less described but may provide important clinical information. In this retrospective study, 82 canine lymphoma patients were categorized according to the weight change between diagnosis and after 5 weeks of chemotherapy. Dogs that gained greater than 5% or lost greater than 5% of initial body weight were categorized as increased- or decreased-weight groups, respectively. Those in which weight changed less than 5% were categorized as the maintained-weight group. The median progression-free survival (PFS) in the increased-weight group, maintained-weight group and decreased-weight group was 226, 256 and 129 days, respectively. The decreased-weight group had significantly shorter PFS than the increased and maintained groups (P = .023, P = .003, respectively). The median survival time (ST) in the increased-weight group, maintained-weight group and decreased-weight group was 320, 339 and 222 days, respectively. There was no significant difference in ST among the three groups (P = .128). In Cox-regression results, weight change group and initial body weight were significant risk factors associated to PFS (P = .007, P = .001, respectively) while only patient's initial body weight was a significant risk factor to ST (P = .013). In conclusion, evaluation of initial body weight and weight changes over time can provide valuable information regarding PFS and ST in dogs with multicentric lymphoma.