Department of Surgery, School of Veterinary Medicine, University of California, Davis 95616.
Sixteen dogs, given adjuvant cisplatin chemotherapy after amputation for osteogenic sarcoma of the appendicular skeleton, had a median survival time of 413 days. Ten dogs (62%) were alive 1 year after amputation. Dogs were given cisplatin at a dosage of 50 mg/m2 of body surface every 4 weeks for a total of 6 cisplatin treatments, or until metastatic disease was detected. Cisplatin chemotherapy was well-tolerated by most dogs, with only 1 dog developing serious gastrointestinal toxicosis, requiring hospitalization. Results of this study support other investigators' findings that when a cisplatin chemotherapy-based protocol is administered, survival times after amputation can be prolonged for dogs with osteogenic sarcoma.