I am absolutely devastated as my 4-5 year old dog has a mast cell tumor. Today she completed staging and had enlarged lymph nodes (0.6cm inguinal and 1.0cm medial iliac) as well as subjectively enlarged and mildly diffusely mottled spleen.
My surgical oncologist did FNA and the results are pending. He said he would bet the LN are reactive and the spleen is just a normal variant. Her cytology from FNA of the mast cell tumor itself was well differentiated.
I will be absolutely crushed if she has stage IV as I know this has a poor prognosis. While thinking about everything, I have come up with two scenarios that I am not certain how I should proceed. I am thinking about this before hand in case I get overly emotional with any news.
- If the FNA cytology for the nodes and spleen comes back negative, should I just request they be removed anyway along with the tumor? I have doubt regarding these just being reactive/normal (but might be my lack of experience/knowledge).
- If the FNA cytology for the nodes and spleen comes back positive, my vet said to remove the mass, spleen, and nodes followed by chemotherapy. I struggle to spend this money for likely a poor outcome (~20,000) but more importantly wonder if this would cause my dog to have a poor quality of life.
Any perspective would be appreciated