Evaluation of Thalidomide in the Treatment of Canine Malignant Mammary Gland Neoplasms

Abstract

Mammary tumors are among the most common neoplasms of the female dog and surgery is the treatment of choice. Chemotherapy has been used in malignant mammary gland tumors as adjuvant therapy. Tumoral angiogenesis is the ability of neoplastic cells to induce the formation of new blood vessels and it allows the rational use of antiangiogenic therapies. Thalidomide mainly presents an antiangiogenic and immunomodulatory action and has been proposed for the treatment of veterinary and human neoplasms. This therapy seems to be beneficial in the treatment of bitches diagnosed with malignant mammary gland neoplasms. The aim of this new treatment proposal is disease control, overall survival increase, and maintenance of the quality of life of the patient. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to evaluate the administration of thalidomide in association to chemotherapy with carboplatin and surgical exision in advanced canine mammary cancer. At least 24 bitches will be evaluated, divided according to the different proposed treatments. Histopathological analysis, histological grading, morphometric analysis of the inflammatory infiltrate, and immunohistochemistry for Ki-67 and CD31 will be performed in order to evaluate the primary neoplasms, and tumor microvessel density and the inflammatory infiltrate in primary neoplasms before the thalidomide treatment and in distant metastasis obtained after the thalidomide treatment. Follow-up of all patients will be held for at least one year, in order to obtain overall survival.