Correlation between thoracic radiographic changes and remission/survival duration in 270 dogs with lymphosarcoma

A retrospective study was undertaken wherein the medical records and thoracic radiographs of 270 dogs with lymphosarcoma were reviewed to determine the type and frequency of thoracic radiographic changes. Statistical evaluation of the relationship between radiographic, clinical and immunologic factors and the primary remission duration and survival times was performed using univariate and multivariate analysis. One hundred ninety-two dogs (71%) had some type of thoracic radiographic abnormality, including 80 dogs (29.6%) with pulmonary infiltrates and 164 dogs (64.4%) with thoracic lymphadenomegaly. Only T-cell phenotype (p = 0.0056 for survival, p = 0.0045 for remission) and the presence of cranial mediastinal lymphadenomegaly (p = 0.0005 for survival, p = 0.0129 for remission) were identified as having a significant negative correlation to both primary remission and survival duration by multivariate analysis.