What can I do if my cat has intestinal lymphoma? Can it be cured?

I am sorry you are frustrated with Pepe's care. Without biopsies of the intestine, lymphoma is difficult to diagnose. I don't suspect this will hurt his chances, but I would recommend talking with an oncologist about your treatment options. Lymphoma can go into remission with aggressive therapy but sometimes the best treatments fail. Good luck and kisses to Pepe!

These are great questions. Contrary to popular belief, most cancer patients in veterinary medicine have completely unremarkable bloodwork. Just because there are many extra lymphocytes in the walls of the intestines, does not mean there are extra lymphocytes in the blood stream - where our sample comes from. We can be suspicious of it from an ultrasound but cannot truly diagnose it without the biopsy. As for the second part, small cell lymphoma is a disease that affects large sections of or almost the entire small bowel. It is not a single mass that can be removed. Luckily for you, small cell lymphoma responds well to chemotherapy in most cases. Best wishes to you and Trixie.

Thank you for submitting your question regarding Trixie. I am sorry to hear about her recent diagnosis. Unfortunately, gastrointestinal lymphoma can be a longterm consequence of inflammatory bowel disease in cats. I am glad that will consult with an oncologist. There are actually a variety of treatment protocols, some of which can be oral tablets given at home. Cats tend to tolerate chemotherapy really well. They do not usually lose hair like human cancer patients will. There can be some nausea, but this is generally mild and there are good medications to control it. The main side effects tend to be white blood cell suppression. For this reason, her blood work will be monitored carefully. I hope this information helps!

Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach! That statement is true for the most part. There are more factors that play a role when it comes to ymphoma such as the morphology of the cells and their molecular characteristics. Now it is true that most of the lymphomas affecting the gastrointestinal tract in cats are T-cell. However, we do see T-cell lymphoma affecting other locations. The small cell type of gastrointestinal lymphoma does not tend to affect the kidneys at all while the large cell type can affect the kidney in about a third of the patients. I hope this is useful. To give you more specific information I would need to know more specifics on the case. Feel free to request a consultation with me if you have further questions such as best treatment options and how to manage these cases. I see these cases very commonly as I only see cancer cases. Good luck!

I'm sorry you and Oscar are going through this. My honest opinion? In talking to pet parents about cancers, intestinal cancers in cats are one of the instances where I almost always urge people to go for it, and try to treat them. Why? Because they can do so well for so long. I'm assuming your vet is thinking this is either intestinal lymphoma or inflammatory bowel disease. Those two diseases cannot be distinguished from each other on ultrasound, and we often just see thickened intestines, so biopsies are needed. IBD is very treatable, and at 5 years old that is the more likely diagnosis. Some of these guys do great with just a diet change to a hypoallergenic diet. Others need immunosuppressive therapy in addition to diet, but there is an excellent drug called budesonide that has minimal systemic side effects, and works primarily in the gut. I've managed IBD cats well for 10+ years. If it's lymphoma, those cats respond well to prednisolone therapy (another, stronger immunosuppressive drug) and sometimes the addition of a well-tolerated chemotherapeutic called leukeran. I've successfully managed cats with intestinal lymphoma for 3+ years. If it's not lymphoma, and more of an issue with a focal intestinal mass, that's a whole different ballgame, but again, treatable in many cases. And I would have expected that they would have seen a mass on ultrasound, so that seems unlikely. I think the best thing about getting biopsies is having a definitive answer, and knowing what you're dealing with. Best of luck to you and Oscar in getting this figured out.

Hello. I’m so sorry to hear about your cat. I had a lovely long haired cat with lymphoma years ago. There is lymph tissue throughout the body. Before deciding on any types of surgery, it is beneficial to know just how extensive her cancer is. If she, for example, has a section of intestinal tract with a tumor or a couple of tumors, that area can be removed. However, if it seems that the cancer is already metastasized to liver, spleen, lungs, etc. , her prognosis would change and possibly surgery would not be if much benefit. A treatment plan if surgery/ chemotherapy / both can be arrived at after more information is collected.

I'm sorry Peppe has lymphoma! Please keep in mind that because I can't see him in person, I can't say anything for certain, but I can give my best opinion on his situations. It's great that he is doing well after two years, and since he did have chemo, it sounds like it was successful! It is still possible that he did have lymphoma and not IBD, and the treatment that was given helped with the cancer. I would continue to give him the prednisone as prescribed by your vet, and enjoy every ounce of time you have with him. Some cats do live longer than expected when they have cancer, not every case is textbook, and you are very lucky to still have Peppe with you. Give him lots of love each day, he is lucky to have such a caring owner as well who is willing to do so much to help him stay heathy :-)