Cancer Treatments in Pets

We are fortunate to live in a time where our ability to treat our beloved pets is increasing rapidly. With around half of our pets developing cancer at some point in their lives, cancer is something we are treating more and more.

When I first graduated, cancer was a death sentence. We could use some pain kilers to keep the pet comfortable, but a meaningful improvement in life expectancy and quality of life was difficult to obtain.

In 2010 I studied a Distance Education course in Medical Oncology through the university of Sydney. At the time, I realised cancer was a bit issue we were facing, but I didn't realise how many pets we could help.

The first thing I always discuss with people when we aim to treat a cancer is what are our aims. I no longer consider my job to be curing disease, but rather it is to make our pets feel well. And this is the aim of any cancer treatment.

We can cure many cancers with surgery, but how do we deal with the cases that can't be operated on? The dogs with lymphoma, sarcomas in locations we can't remove, or skin cancer that has spread still need something to help them. This is where chemotherapy becomes our main tool.

When we mention chemotherapy, many people think of the side effects such as vomiting and hair loss which can be experienced by people. these side effects come about because of the high doses of drugs used to try to cure the disease. In dogs and cats, I consider making the animal feel very unwell as an unacceptable side effect, so we use chemotherapy differently in pets.

In pets, we use chemotherapy as a tool to turn the cancer into a "chronic disease". Just the same as we can treat the symptoms of arthritis or heart failure in pets, we can treat the symptoms of the cancer. We know with arthritis or heart failure that the pet will eventually stop responding to medication, but we can give them good quality life again by using the right medications.We use similar drugs in pets as are used in people, but at a lower dose so the pet doesn't feel unwell in most cases, but the cancer is sent into remission.

A good example of how well this works is the treatment of lymphoma. Without treatment, most dogs with lymphoma will die within weeks. With the correct protocol, most dogs will live for more than a year. I most cases, people who know the animal will look at the dog and not even know it has cancer or that it is undergoing treatment. The results can be that good!

The treatment isn't cheap, with some protocols costing around $3000, but many people find the extra time they get with their beloved pet, and seeing how well the pet can be, makes it all worth while.