Honoring Shannon

Shannon is a dog that came to the NorthStar VETS Oncology service on Christmas Eve of 2012 with lymphoma. She was 7 years old at the time and we started the standard CHOP chemotherapy protocol for her. Shannon did quite well through treatment and remains in remission for her lymphoma, but would have a second battle to win.

This past August, she came in for a recheck because a mass was noticed on her neck. A procedure called a fine needle aspirate and cytology were performed and found the mass to be a second type of cancer, a mast cell tumor. The mast cell tumor was removed the next day by Dr. Arulpragasam of the NorthStar VETS Surgery team. The biopsy returned as a low-grade tumor with complete margins, meaning that the cancer was fully removed during surgery.

Shannon is now 12 years old and nearly 5-years from her initial diagnosis of lymphoma. She has so far beaten two cancers! Recently, she came back from a camping trip with her family and she is still doing great! Shannon is a great example of how we can extend good quality of our life for our patients with both surgery and chemotherapy together.

Learn more about the Oncology service at NorthStar VETS.

Jennifer Kim, DVM, DACVIM (Oncology)
Dr. Kim grew up in New York and received her BA from the University of Pennsylvania. After two years at the National Cancer Institute performing cancer genetic research, she attended veterinary school at Tufts University. Dr. Kim completed a rotating internship at the Animal Medical Center in Manhattan, New York, and an oncology internship at Cornell University. She began at NorthStar VETS as an emergency clinician in 2005 and returned in 2010 to treat oncology patients after completing her residency in medical oncology at Michigan State University School of Veterinary Medicine. In her free time, Dr. Kim is an avid foodie and knitter.