# Newsletter on Cancer



## maggie1951 (Apr 20, 2007)

Hi i get a Newsletter and this on was on Cancer i don't know if it may help anybody but i thought i would post for people to read.

Maggie


Hello to you all - i hope everyone and there pets are keeping well. 

Welcome to April 2008 newsletter 

Here is a link to a site which has an online petition to support homeopathy which I thought i would pass on to you all we all need to sign it and have a choice:

Its just ridiculous how people (mainly big pHarma companies) are trying to stop us using homeopathy and I am sure lots of you will feel the same.

http://www.homeopathyworkedforme.org/#/whatsatrisk/4526685072

I also thought the following information might be of use to you, my boxer dog (Abby) had a mastcell tumour removed a few weeks ago which was very agressive and ive just been doing some research and found the following - im putting it on my article page in more depth, it wil be on there during the week and there will be a link to the website as well.

I was told by my vet that chemotherapy was out the question as it didnt do anything, it now makes me wonder. Any feed back would be welcome.

Mast Cell Tumors (MCTs). Many of us have heard the name, but what is a mast cell? The skin is made up of two layers, the thin outer layer, the epidermis, and the thicker tissue called the dermis. This is all attached to the underlying tissues and organs by the subcutis. Within the dermis one finds the hair follicles, nerve endings, sweat glands, and mast cells. The mast cells are what control many of the body's allergic reactions. When the body comes into contact with an allergen, the mast cells release histamine-containing granules. A series of events unfold, ultimately causing swelling.

Sometimes, however, these mast cells begin to grow out of control. As many as 25% of all skin tumors in dogs are mast cell tumors. Half of these tumors are malignant. Most of them appear as raised nodular masses that feel soft to solid. 10 - 15% of them are indistinguishable from fatty cysts which lie under the skin in the subcutis. Half of them are found on the body, 40% are found on the legs, and 10% are found on the head or neck. Although these tumors may be found anywhere, including the liver, spleen, and bone marrow, most of the MCTs are found in the skin. There seem to be breed predilections for MCTs, with Boxers, Boston Terriers, Bulldogs, and Bull Terriers most commonly listed as being at risk. MCTs can occur in a dog of any age, but they are typically found in middle age or older dogs, with a mean age of 8.5 years. They are found in males and females equally; there is no sex predilection. Heredity is thought to play a role. Other risk factors include viral infections, and sites of previous injuries such as burns.

So you pet your dog every day, carefully checking for any new lumps and bumps, and you find something new - a lump, a bump, or a swelling. Now what? You go to the vet (Note: vets and pathologists can be male or female, I will stick to the standard English usage, sorry ladies!) and ask him to do a fine needle aspirate of the suspicious area. He sucks some of the cells into a syringe. He might test some of the cells between his fingers, cells from a fatty cyst (lipoma) feel distinctly greasy. But if that greasy feel is missing, a slide will be prepared for review by a lab. If the report comes back MCT, the next step has to be planned. Surgery, chemotherapy, radiation, or combinations of these are all options. Radiation would be used if the tumor is inoperable, the whole tumor wasn't or couldn't be removed, or after surgery to prevent a recurrence of the tumor. Chemotherapy in this case is not what you think, it is prednisone. (Note: chemotherapy in dogs is not typically as devastating to their system as it is for humans. They get lower more frequent doses, and the side effects are usually minimal.) The steroids prednisone or prednisolone are the most effective for fighting mast cell. It is used for treating the cancer if it has metastasized (spread to other locations in the body), to help shrink a MCT prior to surgery, or to help prevent metastasis after surgery.

Surgery is the preferred treatment choice. The tumor normally consists of a seemingly well-defined core, but there is a "halo" of cells in the normal-looking tissue around that core. So a surgeon needs to remove the lump along with 3 - 5 cm. of surrounding tissue. The lump is then sent to a pathologist for analysis. Grading a tumor is done to help a Veterinarian determine the best treatment options. The tumor is examined to determine how well differentiated the cells are. As you may remember from beginning biology, the standard cell structure has (among other things) a cell wall and a nucleus, a bit like a long box with a ball in it. This is a well-differentiated structure. But as cancer cells grow out of control, this structure breaks down, and often becomes an amorphous mass with lots of nuclei and very few distinct cell walls. This is called an anaplastic tumor (ana - backward, plasia - growth), and is not differentiated enough to even determine the type of cancer cells present. The anaplastic tumors are very aggressive, fast growing cancers. Grade I tumors are well-differentiated, and are not very aggressive. Grade II can be difficult to rate. If they are well-differentiated but and localized similar to Grade I, they can usually be treated with a moderate approach. But if the cell is well-contained but with poorly differentiated cell structure, or if MCTs are found at multiple sites, it should be treated very aggressively. Some vets call this Grade II aggressive. Grade III tumors are very aggressive and poorly differentiated. (Note, some labs use just the opposite grading method, so listen carefully before panicking!) In addition, samples of the biopsy will be checked to see if any cancer cells are found at the edge of the sample. If none are found, the margins are said to be clean. If cancer cells are found anywhere at the edges, then the margins are dirty. But remember, the pathologist is not able to look at all cells at the edge, so clean margins is not a guarantee that the entire cancer was removed. 

For the next step in planning treatment, it helps to use a tool developed by the World Health Organization called the Clinical Staging System. 

Stage I - solitary tumor confined to the dermis without lymph node involvement
Stage II - solitary tumor with regional lymph node involvement
Stage III - multiple dermal tumors with or without lymph node involvement
Stage IV - any tumor with distant metastasis or recurrence with metastasis

A typical chemotherapy regimen will start with prednisone, and if no response is seen after two weeks, the drugs used will be cyclophosphamide, vinblastine, and prednisone (CVP). Tagamet will generally be used to minimize stomach irritation from the prednisone as well as to counteract the histamines released by existing mast cells. (Note: the histamines may cause the surgical incision site to heal more slowly than normal.) So typical treatment options for the different stages:

I - surgical tumor removal
Clean margins - no further treatment
Dirty margins - wider surgical excision or radiation
II - surgical excision
Clean margins - pred for at least 6 months
Dirty margins - wider surgical excision and pred, or radiation & pred
III & IV - local therapy (surgery) if possible, pred or CVP

So remember, ALWAYS check for lumps and bumps, and ALWAYS get them checked by your vet! Insist on it, and don't feel like an old fussbudget!

I hope this is of some help to you all. 

Many thanks for your custom and support.
Donna x
www.holisticpetsupplies.co.uk


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## Hudson (May 18, 2005)

Im sure this info will be very helpful to many, thanks for posting it


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## maggie1951 (Apr 20, 2007)

I sure hope so as Cancer is such a terrible thing for our dogs.


Maggie


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## jrhanifan (Apr 20, 2008)

This is good advice, but you still have to be your own doctor in a sense. I brought my Golden to a vet to check a bump on her leg. It was diagnosed as a sprain and I was given anti-inflammatories. I called several times asking why the sprain wasn't getting better, and the vet told me to be patient as these things take time. After several weeks and finally getting the right diagnosis, my Golden lost its battle to cancer. Just be careful, even about what your vet says.


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