Kicking off National Pet Cancer Awareness Month

Did you know that November is National Pet Cancer Awareness Month? To begin a conversation about cancer awareness and the critical role of the general practitioners in its diagnosis, Sue Ettinger, DVM, DACVIM, joins this episode of the Vet Blast Podcast presented by dvm360. Through the episode, Ettinger and our host Adam Christman, DVM, MBA, talk about the role veterinary general practitioners play when it comes to cancer diagnosing, the benefits of building a relationship with the oncologist in your area or hospital, and how important the quality of life is during treatment.

Below is a partial transcript

Sue Ettinger, DVM, DACVIM (Oncology): Well, I think often, you know, there's this myth and misconception. And again, that's why I got into social media years ago, was because I knew that pet owners were scared to put their pets through chemo, to torture them, to poison them. And so I always say, and I think about this every time I'm like, approaching a cancer in an individual case in the room, like with treatment, will this pet not only live longer, live well. So you know, when we think about statistics, oncologists love statistics, right? Will the median survival time improve with no treatment, versus X, Y, and Z treatment? But will these pets tolerate treatment? Because I always say, like, if they're living longer, but not living well, I'm not doing my job. Luckily, as you know, most dogs and cats tolerate chemo very well better than people, so they, in general, will tolerate it.

There may be some bad days or some days that they're off, but overall, I want owners to look back and be like, 'Yeah, my pet, still had a great quality of life. We still went on walks... They still watch Netflix with me in the evening.' You know, whatever it is that made Bear Bear, you know, they're still able to do that as they're going through treatment. So again, it's not just improving the survival times or the disease-free interval, or, you know, all the oncology terms that we like, but are they having a good quality of life? Do the good days outweigh the bad days? Because again, most people... they're scared to give chemo, because I think, you know, they're going to be so sick the entire time, and then they realize maybe there's just a couple of off days as they're going through a chop protocol for chemo. You know, they're much happier.