Hello Heather,
Always worrying to hear about high grade sarcomas - I hope your pup is doing well.
If the pathology diagnosed a soft tissue sarcoma (STS), it is quite common for tumour margins to be 'dirty' due to their infiltrative behaviour. High grade STS have about a 50% risk of spreading elsewhere in the body, so some form of medication may help delay the development of distant tumours.
Palladia is a medication which is registered for use in the treatment of canine mast cell tumours. However, it has been successfully used off-label for a variety of other tumours, but STS are not included in this list. That is not to say it won't be of benefit - there just is no evidence to support its use.
An alternative would be metronomic chemotherapy, which is a combination of 2 oral drugs that may inhibit blood vessel growth into the tumour cells, and alter the body's immune response to the cancer, thereby maintaining stable disease (delaying tumour recurrence) for a longer period of time. This treatment does have proven benefit in a published study.
Radiation therapy may also be of benefit, but it is a local treatment and will only be aimed at the site of the primary tumour (which is where the greatest risk of tumour recurrence lies).
I hope this is of some benefit in your decision making, Good Luck! Amy
_________________ ___________ Small Animal Oncology Registered Specialist in Veterinary Oncology Newcastle Region
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