COMPARISON OF 3 TREATMENTS FOR TRANSITIONAL-CELL CARCINOMA OF THE BLADDER IN THE DOG

A retrospective analysis on a series of cases was conducted to determi ne if survival times varied significantly among 31 dogs with transitio nal cell carcinoma of the bladder treated with either surgery (n=14), intravesical thiotepa (n=6), or combination chemotherapy consisting of doxorubicin and cyclophosphamide (D/C) (n=11). Comparisons using the chi-square test on an exponential model were made to determine whether factors such as sex, age, breed, and stage of involvement were signif icantly different between the three groups. The dogs treated with D/C survived for a significantly longer period of time (median, 259 days) than did dogs treated with surgery (median, 86 days; p=0.03) or intrav esical thiotepa (median, 57 days; p=0.01). There were no significant d ifferences in the distribution of age, sex, breed, or tumor stage amon g dogs of this study.