The Right Time for Chemotherapy Drugs for Dog Cancer?
ByI have been posting on what a huge issue timing can be when it comes to dog cancer treatments.
In conventional cancer care, this area is utterly overlooked, except in Europe (especially France) and only a couple of spots in the US.
Why does it matter?
Well, dogs (as well as people, other animals, plants, algae, and “lower” life forms) have different things happening at different times in a 24 hour day.
This means that, universally, there are certain processes going on in the morning, afternoon, and night.
These processes influence the handling of drugs in the body very, very significantly. When you are talking about chemotherapy, this matters enormously.
Chemo drugs can have toxic effects, more so than most other drugs. If we can use them at certain times of the day when their toxicity is lower, we gain massive treatment ground!!
I spoke with the father of American chronotherapy, who gave me his best wisdom on the topic. Now, the times he came up with may not be in available publications, at least not yet. He was giving me the information so I could help dogs at my practice.
So, this information is from me. I am choosing to share it with you because I think that if these guidelines are followed, like the studies in rats and humans, we see massive side effect reduction, and better effects in dogs with cancer!
Please understand this whole science is new, and for most Americans, pretty much unheard of.
So don’t be surprised when your vet or oncologist has no clue what you are talking about. But please rest assured, like everything in this blog, chronotherapy is not whoo-hoo mumbo jumbo. It has been demonstrated in good quality scientific studies.
Here they are*:
CCNU (Lomustine) : 4 PM +/- 2hours
Doxorubicin (Adriamycin): early AM
Platinum Drugs (Cisplatin, Carboplatin): 4-6 PM
Corticosteriods (Prednisolone, Prednisone, Dexamethasone, Triamcinolone): early AM
5-FU: middle of the night
Cyclophosphamide: early AM
Vinca Alkaloids (Vincristine, Vinblastine): Mid-Day
*based on human and rodent studies.
Use this information and share it with your vet or oncologist!
Best,
Dr D
About the Author
Dr. Demian Dressler, DVM is known as the "dog cancer vet" and is author of Dog Cancer Survival Guide: Beyond Surgery, Chemotherapy & Radiation. Visit his blog and sign up free to get the latest information about canine cancer. Go to http://DogCancerBlog.com.
2 Comments
January 25th, 2009 at 9:36 pm
My girl had “breast” cancer (lymphoma?) - and we opted for the chemo. It appeared that the tumors grew more when we did the chemo. After 2 sessions - I asked what was I “buying” - how much more time. I was told, a couple of weeks. My pup was only 9 years old - I was looking for an answer of a couple of years at least for the energy, money and effort we were putting into it.
Question: WHY would the vet encourage me to do chemo when he felt we were gaining VERY little????
January 30th, 2009 at 7:45 pm
Carol, I am sorry that the chemo did not work. Vets sometimes will just recommend what is in the medical book. You just reach for your hammer when you are a carpenter. Chemo is what we are trained to offer, and so we do it.
I am sorry things are not going well. Check out some of the outside-the-box options in this blog.
Best
D