New hope when canine cancer strikes

All living things are vulnerable to cancer, but now there is new hope when canine cancer strikes. When this happens, our natural tendency is to panic, worry, and give extra care to our canine friend. Not only that, we are also eager to find possible cures, no matter what it takes. Well, nowadays there is much more hope than in the past.

A good example is the story of the Golden Retriever named Gomez, who is 4 years old, and is owned by Gwenda Gray of Marrickville, NSW, Australia. Unlike her other dogs who lived a normal life span, Gomez suffered terminal cancer at a young age. She says that she is shocked to know that her beloved canine friend will die young. In fact, Gomez was at the prime of his life and full of energy, as many people noticed.

Unfortunately for Gomez, his cancer is an incurable, inoperable lipoma in the pelvic area. It is a tumor that continually grows and spreads throughout the nearby organs. Gomez has been given chemotherapy to hinder the growth of the tumor and is apparently improving.

Video: Dog with massive cancerous tumor makes incredible recovery

Unfortunately for pet owners, cancer has no age limit or boundaries- it can come at any time of a dog’s life, to any kind of breed. Also, it has become a very common disease affecting many canine lives today.

New Hope When Canine Cancer Strikes

According to Sydney’s Animal Referral Hospital’s (ARH) veterinary oncologist, Dr. Angela Frimberger, the field of veterinary oncology has significantly improved throughout the past decade. Dr. Frimberger is the one who treats Gomez’s cancer. She also says that nowadays people are being more attentive to their pet’s health, and get the best medical care that is possible for them. And for these reasons, more dogs with cancer are living a long life, even into their senior years. The improvements have actually made cancer one of the easiest chronic canine diseases to treat.

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Dr. Frimberger has estimated that more than 24,000 canine cancer cases happen each year, based on the number of cases she handles. About 15 – 20 percent of her patients have been fully cured, while the remaining 80 percent had their lives prolonged with their life quality improved significantly. There is no doubt that veterinary oncology is one of the fastest growing medical fields of today, due to their significant improvements in medical technology, equipment, methods of treatment, and medication. Diagnostic methods have also improved, allowing earlier detection. For one example, ARH recently had an MRI installed that can detect hard-to-diagnose cancers and other conditions which in the past could only be detected by surgery.

These improvements are confirmed in a Q&A article on the Pets.WebMD.com website:

Veterinary oncology has progressed amazingly in the past two decades. Twenty years ago, most people didn’t even know dogs got cancer. Today it’s common to find people whose dogs have been treated for cancer. There are so many more facilities for treating canine cancer now, and there are veterinarians who do nothing but treat cancer.

If you and your best friend are faced with this unfortunate problem in the future, just remember that there is now new hope when canine cancer strikes.

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