lymphoma statistics

[Lernermichelle]

Statistics show that positives are 600 times more likely to get lymphoma than negatives. I have lost 3 and possibly 4 positives to it; to my knowledge I have not lost a positive to anything else, though Buddy was never definitively diagnosed (but the other 3 were).  I think that most people who have positives lose their cats to lymphoma without knowing that is what it is-- they just know they are having trouble breathing (mediastinal), diarrhea or blockage (intestinal), anemia (bone marrow), etc.  A lot of people on our list have lost cats to lymphoma and know it, but were not on the yahoo lymphoma list, and a lot have not had real diagnoses when their cats died or were pts.  A lot of vets do not think it worth getting a diagnosis on a positive when things are bad and attribute it to the FeLV (which it is attribiutable to, indirectly). Michelle   In a message dated 9/25/2006 11:35:25 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: I'm not sure I agree with this anymore, out of all the cats on the lymphoma list I'm on only 2 or 3 are +, it is one of the more common cancers positives get but I don't think it is any less likely for a positive to get it than a negative any more.  Any many of the ones that do have it have had IBD for a long time. It's not characteristic FeLV, just characteristic of intestinal problems like IBD and intestinal lymphoma (though lymphoma affects positives much more than negatives).