Question: Do you always recommend treatment for pets with cancer? Are there ever times when you do not recommend treatment?
Answer: Your question is insightful, and yes, there are times treatment is not recommended for a pet with cancer.
It would be very straightforward if all we needed to consider were the medical options for a pet. There are many factors considered: First, there are patient factors like the age of the pet, the medical history of the pet, the temperament or anxiety level of the pet, and how well the pet is able to travel. There are also client factors to consider. How feasible it is for a client to travel for recheck appointments and treatments? Would once a day work, or is once a week, or once a month a more realistic option? Cost of therapy is also a part of the decision. Unlike cancer therapy for people, cancer treatment for pets is usually not covered by insurance, unless a policy was purchased earlier in the pet’s life.
For example, I recently consulted on an 11-year-old female boxer with two types of cancer. One tumor was growing from the skin on the side of her body, and the other tumor was growing from the skin on her hind foot. The tumor on the side of the body was a sarcoma and the tumor on the foot was a mast cell tumor. Neither of these tumors were painful, and neither of these tumors were making her sick. She was otherwise a healthy, geriatric boxer, with an excellent quality of life.
The most aggressive treatment option for this patient would have been surgery to remove both tumors, followed by radiation therapy to destroy and residual cancer cells left behind after surgery. This option would probably have been a curable option, but would have required multiple visits to the hospital for post operative bandage changes and daily radiation treatments. Rather than aggressive therapy, we opted for a more conservative approach for this patient.
Many factors were considered in making this decision, including this dog?s advanced age and that neither tumor was diminishing this patient’s quality of life. Treatment for our boxer was aimed at preventing the progression of her cancer by preventing the cancer from growing any further. A low dose, oral chemotherapy drug was chosen with the intent of preventing further growth of the skin tumors. Our thoughts in making this treatment recommendation were that if we could slow the overall growth of the Boxer’s two cancers with conservative, oral, medical therapy, she would be able to live our her normal life expectancy with minimal intervention.
These are the types of decisions that are made daily.
There are times when the most aggressive treatment option is the best option, and there are other times when a more conservative approach is best.
Dr. Correa
Stephanie Correa, DVM
Board Certified in Oncology
Animal Cancer Care Clinic
www.AnimalCancerCareClinic.com
Read more articles by Dr. Correa | Ask her a question
Source: http://blogs.palmbeachpost.com/pawshere/2012/10/24/should-pets-cancer-always-be-treated/
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