Chemotherapy
What Is Chemotherapy?
Also known as “chemo,” chemotherapy is a type of medication that damages cancer cells in a way that generally results in either stopping or slowing their growth.
The Goal of Chemotherapy
The goal of chemotherapy is to extend the length of your pet’s life while maintaining its quality of life. Depending on the stage of your pet’s cancer, chemotherapy can:
• Induce clinical remission (lack of obvious evidence of the cancer)
• Control the cancer by slowing its growth and preventing its spread
• Shrink the tumor to relieve cancer symptoms
Why Chemotherapy?
Chemotherapy, which is a systemic treatment, can target multiple and widespread cancerous locations throughout your pet’s body at the same time. Surgery and radiation, which are local treatments, do not have the same effect over the entire body. Additionally, certain cancers respond better to chemotherapy than to other treatments.
What About Side Effects?
Many people have seen their human loved ones undergo chemotherapy and are hesitant to put their pets through the same experience. Compared with people, pets tend to tolerate chemotherapy extremely well, primarily because veterinary oncologists use lower drug doses and combine fewer drugs than their human oncology colleagues.
Chemotherapy can sometimes affect the healthy cells in your pet’s body, especially if those cells have similar characteristics to cancer cells, such as rapid growth.
In the relatively few pets who have side effects, signs are typically mild and can include:
• Lack of appetite
• Vomiting
• Diarrhea
• Lethargy
• Infections (skin infections, urinary tract infections, etc.)
• Hair loss (rare, and usually only affects the whiskers)
More severe side effects are rare but possible and would generally require 1-2 days of hospitalization.
How Is Chemotherapy Administered?
Some chemotherapies are given as injections. Other chemotherapies are oral, which you will administer at home. Dosing schedules vary between different types of chemotherapy, but are usually given daily, weekly or every 2-3 weeks.
Chemotherapy Safety
Chemotherapeutic drugs are powerful and potentially harmful medications. Your veterinary oncologist will guide you in the proper handling of the chemotherapy prescribed to your pet, but general guidelines include the following:
• Always wear gloves when handling chemotherapy
• Never break or cut a chemotherapy medication
• Keep the medication stored out of reach and away from food
• Avoid contact with your pet’s stool and urine for 48 hours after treatment
Common Cancer and Chemotherapy Myths
Myth: Cancer is always deadly.
Fact:
The diagnosis of cancer in a beloved pet can be devastating. But we have an important and hopeful message for you: Today, for pets as well as humans, many forms of cancer can be managed in almost the same way as any chronic disease.
Myth: It’s unfair to pets to put them through chemotherapy.
Fact:
Cancer treatment for pets has become more sophisticated, and chemotherapy in animals is less aggressive than it is in humans. As a result, side effects—if any—are often quite mild.
Myth: If my pet has side effects from chemotherapy, nothing can be done to relieve them.
Fact:
On the relatively few occasions when side effects do occur, veterinarians have many ways to make your pet feel better, from anti-nausea medications to pain medications. Your veterinary oncology team includes experts who will work together to improve or eliminate your pet’s side effects.
Myth: It’s not possible for a pet to live well with cancer.
Fact:
In humans, doctors strive to achieve a cure. In animals, the goal is to extend life while maintaining its quality. An additional 12 to 18 months of life for a pet is comparable to several additional years for a human patient.
