My 3 yo indoor cat has had medical problems since April 2006. I've been taking him to the vet pretty much every 1-4 weeks since then. Needless to say, I've spent well over $6000. The vets aren't exactly sure what's wrong with him. They are suspecting Leukemia, although the bone marrow aspirate we had done was negative. The internal medicine vet suggested we have a "clonality study" done. They can take a blood sample to look at his lymphocytes (which have been elevated) and determine if they are cancerous, and whether they're mature or immature, along with some other things.
My questions are-- has anyone ever heard of a Clonality Study? Does anyone have any idea how much this will cost me (the vet hasn't yet found out from the pathologist that will be performing the study). Any info. on Clonality Studies and your experiences with them would be greatly appreciated, as I have never heard of them before now and don't really have a clue about them. Thank you very much!
2007-01-28 06:39:26 · 1 answers · asked by nursemarie 3 in Health ➔ Diseases & Conditions ➔ Cancer
I am no vet, but pnysician (or almost, I am working on my thesis)
Clonality study means that they will find out if all the lymphocites come from the same origin. Normally, lymphocites are not that alike because they have one of two different functions: or cellular defense (T) or antibody creation (B type) against a certain antigen.
They would do a clonality study to determine the presence of leukemia, its type and the best treatment.
2007-01-28 07:38:51 · answer #1 · answered by mbestevez 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋