Laparoscopic partial pancreatectomy in a cat with exocrine pancreatic carcinoma

Retrospective evaluation of toceranib phosphate (Palladia) use in the treatment of feline pancreatic carcinoma

Objective

To retrospectively assess the biological response in cats with pancreatic carcinoma treated with toceranib phosphate.

Animals

Twenty-six client-owned cats.

Procedure

Patient information from multiple institutions was solicited via an emailed REDCap survey. For inclusion, cats were required to have a confirmed diagnosis of exocrine pancreatic carcinoma either by histopathology, cytology, or both; to have received treatment with toceranib phosphate; and to have adequate follow-up data for analysis.

Results

Twenty cats were treated for gross disease and 6 for microscopic disease/incomplete margins. Clinical benefit (complete response, partial response, or stable disease ≥ 10 wk) was observed in 9/20 cats treated in the gross disease setting (45%; complete response: n = 1, stable disease: n = 8). The remaining 11 cats with gross disease did not respond to toceranib phosphate. In the cats with microscopic disease, response was mixed. The median survival time for all cats was 97 d (range: 1 to 1666 d).

Conclusion

Toceranib phosphate was well-tolerated and provided modest clinical benefit to a subset of cats treated.

Clinical relevance

Although feline exocrine pancreatic carcinoma continues to be a challenging disease to treat, toceranib phosphate appeared to provide potential clinical benefit.