Cancer in cats

Cancer in cats is the leading cause of death in older cats. While there are a number of similar neoplasia and indeed treatments, much less is understood about feline than human cancer.

Not all human treatments can be applied, not due to a lack of understanding, but to the thorough understanding of what a cat will find an acceptable quality of life. While, for example, human bladder cancer may be curable with radical surgery, a cat will not tolerate the ostomy that will be required to manage the urine flow.

Specific cats, however, will accept treatments others will not. Therapy for cats always must be individualized, although there may be non-obvious things common to cats. A cat's loose skin, for example, lets it accept a subcutaneous injection with little or no discomfort, while the same cat will desperately resist a pill, and perhaps also liquid squirted into its mouth.

Veterinarians, to treat it effectively, must:

1. Dispel myths
2. Establish a team
3. Deliver care: "TLC" approach to staging, supportive care, disease-modifying care

Ogilvie and Brown use the TLC abbreviation both for "tender loving care," and for assessment:

1. Tissue diagnosis by biopsy and histopathology
2. Location of the primary tumor, nonmetastatic effects on other organs, and distant metastases if present
3. Condition of the patient, both cancer-related such as paraneoplastic syndrome and cachexia, but also, remembering the typical cat with cancer is old, overall geriatric health care,