Research For Diagnosing Hemangiosarcoma In Dogs

Canine Hemangiosarcoma is the most aggressive cancer seen in dogs and is becoming more common every day. Despite aggressive treatment with surgery and chemotherapy, if it is even possible, most dogs will die due to metastatic spread of their cancer within 6 months and no significant advancements in the treatment of hemangiosarcoma have occurred in over 30 years. Several challenges have hindered improvements in outcomes, including limitations in the capabilities of current imaging and/or blood-based markers to diagnose or detect early signs of the cancer.

Meet my precious boy Ace. He turned 9 years old in May. He was my everything and my entire world. He was not just a dog, he was the most beautiful soul I have met in my lifetime, that had the most profound impact on my life. He was my son. He absolutely loved life, and the love he consistently gave out to complete strangers on a daily basis was the highlight of many people's days. He taught me patience, he taught me what unconditional love was. He turned me into a person that cherishes every life no matter what species, and he made me stop eating meat. He showed me that all life is very much like us, he did all that and more. Making me a better, more aware, more considerate and more loving person every day I was blessed to have him in my life. Nothing he gifted me with I could ever repay him in my lifetime. This summer in mid-July he had his vet checkup and everything came back perfect. He received his vaccinations, and I scheduled him for teeth cleaning four days later. On the morning of his cleaning appointment, the vet did blood work and everything was normal. I nevertheless canceled because they were going to put him under anesthesia and the risk was not worth it to me. Especially not given that he was acting somewhat lethargic after the vaccinations he received at his checkup. Later that same day, Ace suddenly collapsed. His gums turned pale, and I rushed him to an emergency clinic. There, he was diagnosed with a tumor growth on his heart that was bleeding out. Blood was getting trapped in the sac around his heart, which was constricting his heart's ability to pump blood and oxygen through his body, not to mention the loss of actual blood from his system. I stayed with him all night, and then transported him to another clinic the next day that could perform pericardiocentesis (draining of that fluid) and open heart surgery. The blood around his heart was drained, he slightly improved the following night after the procedure was done, however his condition deteriorated fast the following morning as a result of continued bleeding and fluid refilling. He died in my arms that morning. There was no time to prepare, there was no time to say goodbye, there was no opportunity to give him one more amazing day or one last favorite meal. One day he was perfectly healthy, the next day he was ripped away from me in the most brutal fashion. The amount of what ifs, regrets, guilt, and anguish that the shock leaves behind is indescribable.

The cancer that plagued Ace often presents itself as an unexpected emergency in otherwise healthy dogs with sudden and fatal internal abdominal bleeding or bleeding around the heart. Parents are often distraught by the unexpected news in what appeared to be otherwise healthy pups. Ace showed no signs of illness, and the only indicator of anything being wrong was happening as he was already bleeding out to his death. That is the normal scenario for Hemangiosarcoma cases, and it is an extremely painful nightmare too many parents have had to live through.

Hemangiosarcoma is associated with a nearly 100% death rate with dogs surviving only 3-6 months if treatment is started after being diagnosed (consisting of surgery and chemotherapy), assuming treatment is even possible and death does not occur at diagnosis. Most Hemangiosarcoma tumors occur where there is a lot of blood supply... the spleen, liver, and the right atrium of the heart. They usually go undetected until the growth ruptures and starts bleeding, which is then already a dire emergency. Surgery is generally possible with splenic tumors via the removal of the entire spleen, while heart tumors are mostly treated with chemotherapy when bleeding is not severe. There is a critical need to identify the presence of Hemangiosarcoma tumors earlier than is currently possible, however no viable method exists. Common blood tests usually result in no indication that anything is wrong.

While the incidence of Hemangiosarcoma cases keeps rising, treatment approaches to improve Hemangiosarcoma outcomes have remained relatively stagnant over the last 30 years. A 2009-10 health survey by the Australian Shepherd Health & Genetics Institute found that 5% of the dogs surveyed had Hemangiosarcoma, and the longevity survey conducted in 2017 indicated that the frequency since then has increased to as much as 18% of total deaths. Treatment remains a challenge partly because the cancer is frequently detected at an advanced stage and because these tumors are often resistant to chemotherapies. Organizations such as the AKC Canine Health Foundation and the Morris Animal Foundation have been at the forefront of research into Hemangiosarcoma and have funded multiple clinical studies performed by university labs around the country. However, to date, a reliable method of diagnosing the cancer early is still nonexistent.

I myself started Mother Earth Foundation Inc. back in 2021. It is a recognized 501(c)3 non-profit organization by the IRS dedicated to the protection of animals and the earth's natural environments. My boy Ace was the influence and motivation that made me start that foundation. His sudden and unexpected passing wrecked my entire world, as he was my entire world. Hemangiosarcoma wrecks way too many worlds unexpectedly. There is no cure for Hemangiosarcoma, and treatment options are very bleak given the aggressiveness of this cancer. However, the crucial first step in battling Hemangiosarcoma is to establish a viable way of diagnosing the cancer early. With early diagnosis, there would be much less trauma, much less pain, and much more time to respond to the cancer and potentially prolong the lives of beautiful souls who never deserved what they received.

Any donations you make are fully tax deductible. Your tax receipt will be from PayPal Giving Fund if you donate through GoFundMe.com since the website is set up through PayPal. If you donate directly to Mother Earth Foundation Inc. via http://mefnd.org, your tax receipt will be from Mother Earth Foundation Inc. Not any part of your donation will be used for personal expenses related to Ace, or for operational expenses related to the organization. I myself will be paying for all operational and overhead expenses. Rather, 100% of the amounts raised will be used solely in the effort of researching a way to diagnose Hemangiosarcoma as early as possible. That is the first crucial step in fighting the most aggressive cancer currently prevalent in dogs, whose occurrence only keeps increasing across all breeds, especially larger ones. Your donation will directly fund clinical studies and research that is identified to target the stated objective. Mother Earth Foundation Inc. will sponsor promising identified research studies with AKC Canine Health Foundation and the Morris Animal Foundation through grants, and will also fund independent research of its own where viable and where the investment into such studies could potentially maximize the returned benefits that otherwise would go unrealized.

There is nothing that can bring my precious boy back, even though I would have given anything and everything just to be able to spend a single more day to give him the best day he has ever had. What I can do, though, is at least try to work towards preventing yet another parent from living through the same nightmare. For more information and pictures of my precious son Ace, go to http://instagram.com/bandit_ace . If you are also a pet parent who has faced the nightmare that is Hemangiosarcoma, please contact me so that I can put together a page of parents and their precious children who have succumbed to this horrible disease as a tribute to all the beautiful souls that had to unexpectedly leave. Thank you for reading this, and thank you for your efforts in the quest to stop Hemangiosarcoma's devastation in its tracks.