To start reading this article from the beginning please click here What should one expect from chemotherapy if it is recommended for my Mastiff?
Chemotherapy plays an important role in the treatment of metastatic disease and it is the most effective in the early stages of this disease. The disadvantages of chemotherapy are its possible side effects: loss of appetite, vomiting, phlebitis, allergic reactions, suppression of the medullary circulation, secondary infections, gastrointestinal and urological complications - in the first days and weeks of taking the drug; cardiomyopathy, pulmonary fibrosis - during the first weeks or months. The appearance of complications may appear due to the fact that the chemotherapeutic anticancer drugs "do not distinguish between" tumor and normal tissue, primarily attacking the population of rapidly dividing cells (mucous membrane of the gastrointestinal tract, urinary tract, bone marrow).
How will Mastiff’s state change after radiation therapy?
Fast-growing tumors are treated more affectively with small radiotherapy, unlike large and bulky tumors in which cells that are resistant to radiotherapy prevail. Treating large tumors with radiation therapy will not cure the disease, but it can slow the progression or discomfort associated with cancer. In veterinary oncology radiation therapy plays the major role in the treatment of inoperable malignant tumors.
Most tumors are difficult to control with one type of therapy and usually it is necessary to combine several types of treatment such as surgery and radiation or chemotherapy and radiation, etc. Cancer treatment is expensive enough and you should make the decision by yourself. Cancer can be treated and you can extend your Mastiff’s life a bit more without pain from his side.
To start reading this article from the beginning please click here