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Dog splenic hemangiosarcoma: prognosis after spleen removal & chemo?

Updated on September 23rd, 2025

Pet's info: Dog | Leonberger | Female | spayed | 8 years and 3 months old | 135 lbs

Can you tell me about Hemangiosarcoma of the spleen. Spleen removed with tumor and currently starting chemo. Scans show no other tumors, and blood work is clear. Can you describe what this is, and give a educated prognosis. Thank you.

3 Answers

Most Helpful Answer

Answered By Dr. Melanie, BVSc MS

Veterinarian

Published on April 4th, 2017

I'm so sorry that Gunner had a hemagiosarcoma! It's unfortunately a very aggressive cancer, and the overall prognosis is typically poor as it's rarely curable. It's been found that dogs who do not have identifiable metastasis at the time of surgery and receive chemo have a life expectancy of 6-10 months. It is good that his tumor hasn't ruptured the spleen have a better prognosis, and the combination of a spleenectomy and chemo can increase survival time. Fewer than 10% of dogs survive more than 1 year. I hope this helps!

1Pet Parents found this answer helpful

Related Answers from Veterinarians

Answered By Karly Macon, DVM, MS, CVA Certified Veterinary Acupuncturist
Veterinarian
Hello, so sorry to hear about Gunner! Hemangiosarcoma is perhaps the most common abdominal tumor I see. It is cancerous, and highly metastatic, which is why other "scans" were done to see if it had traveled anywhere before the spleen was removed. Hopefully they took radiographs of the chest and abdomen, as well as a full abdominal ultrasound. This tumor commonly travels to the lungs, for example. Likely no small tumors were seen on radiographs of the lungs, but there is no way to be 100% certain that there has been no microscopic evidence of cancer in the lungs by just looking at radiographs. This is why your veterinarian has recommended chemotherapy treatment and will likely want to do follow-up diagnostics to monitor Gunner. There is no way to know exactly how long Gunner has, but there are specific percentage survival rates based on his age and what the spleen looked like on pathology. Your oncologist should be able to help you with these specifics. Ideally, there won't have been any metastasis from the spleen yet and Gunner will do great, but I don't have enough information to assure you of this. Good luck!
1Pet Parents found this answer helpful
Answered By Ricardo Fernandez, DVM
Veterinarian, Veterinary Oncology Resident
Published on March 30th, 2018
Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach! I am so sorry for the sad news. I have plenty of experience with this cancer type as I only see cancer cases. Unfortunately, this tumor type does carry a poor prognosis. I do recommend chemotherapy but the prognosis still remains poor. If there is no spread of the cancer at this point and you proceed with chemotherapy, the median survival times are usually about 4-6 months. They do respond just not for very long. The chemotherapy I recommend is one called doxorubicin. Without chemotherapy and just surgery the survival times tend to be about 1-2 months. Sorry again for the sad news. I wish you and your pup the best!
3Pet Parents found this answer helpful

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