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Featuring Demian Dressler, DVM and Sue Ettinger, DVM, Dip. ACVIM (Oncology), authors of The Dog Cancer Survival Guide

Full Spectrum Cancer Care

If you're facing dog cancer and you feel overwhelmed, there's a good reason for that: it's overwhelming. There is a lot of information to sort through and understand, and it's not always easy to get it from veterinarians. Full Spectrum Cancer Care is an approach pioneered by Dr. Demian Dressler, author of The Dog Cancer Survival Guide, that includes conventional approaches like surgery, chemotherapy and radiation, but also many other strategies from other medical traditions that have been shown to have value for dogs with cancer.

The following articles were written by The Dog Cancer Vet Team to introduce you to some of the most important aspects of his method of understanding and treating dog cancer. We hope you find them helpful.

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An Antibiotic for Dog Cancer

Antibiotics are normally used to treat infections, but not many know that there are anti-tumor antibiotics. One of the cheapest, safest, and most easily obtained through a vet? Doxycycline.  Now, doxycycline is not a dream antibiotic.  It actually has fairly limited use as an antibiotic.  Some use it for dental infections, but it is most…

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Chemotherapy toxicity in dog cancer: Acetyl-L-Carnitine (ALC)

Chemotherapy agents are used to help slow the growth of tumors, improve life quality, and decrease tumor spread in dogs.  Although the doses used are less than in humans, toxicity of chemo drugs is still a concern. The big problem is that things that decrease toxicity of the chemo drugs often will decrease the effectiveness…

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The Toxicity of Potent Dog Chemo Drug Doxorubicin

Is your dog on doxorubicin? Here’s what you need to know about this potent, common chemotherapy agent.

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Things You Need To Know About Radiation for Dog Cancer

This is a continuation of the previous blog topic, radiation therapy in dog cancer. We looked at some benefits of radiation previously, both in terms of life quality and lifespan. This time, I would like to look at some of the downsides.  I am not interested in painting a darker picture than is necessary.  This…

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Radiation therapy and dog cancer?

Radiation is a big gun in dog cancer therapy.  There are many out there that would not even consider it….to hardcore, too scary.  And honestly, many times they might be correct.  But in some cases radiation should be at least considered. For many it is out of the question.  No nearby cancer referral center, no…

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Prejudice in viewpoints on Dog Cancer Care

One of the things I realized in my quest for defining what I’ve coined a “full spectrum approach” to treating cancer is personal bias. I am not talking about racial or sexual discrimination of course.  Rather, something I realized that we all carry within us, and I include myself in this, is the presence of…

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Canine Cancer Surgery: Dog Owners…Check on the pain control!

I have been focusing a bit on osteosarcoma, since this is a common cancer. This info applies to any big surgery involving cancer in dogs though.  I thought that a few bits of vet-only knowledge would be nice for dog owners.  That way you can discuss the important topic of pain control at the time…

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Amputation and life quality. Man walking dog with missing leg.

Canine Osteosarcoma: Amputation and Life Quality

If your dog’s leg is amputated, how does it affect them? Dr. D looks at amputation and life quality for dogs with osteosarcoma.

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My Dog Has Osteosarcoma: Should I Allow Amputation?

Is amputation a good idea for dogs with osteosarcoma? Dr. Dressler looks at this decision from two perspectives. In this article: life expectancy.

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Vitamin C for Canine Cancer Patients? Part 2

Well, it’s been 2 days since the lead-in entry on Vitamin C….which may (or may not) be a long time to wait 🙂  Anyway, here you go: As I had indicated, it turns out that if one were to take vitamin C, at huge doses by mouth, the blood levels you get are puny. When…

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Vitamin C for Canine Cancer Patients?

Many have heard of the Nobel Prize winner Linus Pauling.  After winning the prize in chemistry in 1954, he went off on this tangent and decided to be the major proponent of vitamin C for health. Lots of people became pretty excited, and decided to see if Vitamin C did anything to cancer cells in…

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What about Ozone Therapy and Dog Cancer?

Ozone therapy is one of those things that people ask about sometimes.  Kind of an odd bird, ozone. What’s the deal with ozone therapy and dog cancer? First of all, what is ozone anyway? Ozone is a gas that can be administered after it is dissolved in liquid, most commonly either IV or as an…

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Dog Cancer Surgery: They Didn’t Get It All Out

Sound familiar? Did this happen to anyone out there? Removal of all the cancer cells from the body during surgery is pretty important.  How can we tell? The most important thing to do is get that biopsy report.  Some don’t want the extra cost.  “Just get it out” is a line I have heard from…

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Dog Cancer and Food…what’s the Carbo Problem?

Everybody loves sugar. Late night snacks, movies, late afternoon….kids and grown-ups alike….and dogs like their carbs in dog food and in dog treats, which of course are changed in the body to sugars… Cancer in dogs loves sugar too.  Especially sugar.  Cancers tend to gobble sugar way more than fat or protein.  Cancer definitely has…

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But I want CLA for my dog with cancer!

Dear friends and fellow dog lovers, Here is the follow up on the CLA post… Just for the record, I don’t care for the stuff.  The forms of CLA are all mixed together usually.  At some point they will separate the forms of CLA in the mixture,  and then we can re-assess. At this time…

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Can melatonin be used with lymphosarcoma in dogs?

Before we go back to linoleic acid, the last blog topic, this question has been festering in my mind and needs to be addressed. Should be be using melatonin in dogs with lymphosarcoma? This is an interesting question, especially because as I am about to disagree with what is all over the internet….”don’t use melatonin”…

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Conjugated Linoleic Acid and Dog Cancer

I received a question about the use of safflower oil for a type of lyphosarcoma (lymphoma) in dogs.  The group of active ingredients in safflower oil is called the Conjugated Linoleic Acids (CLA). There are other things in safflower oil too that have effects, but this is a biggy. So should we be giving this…

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Fantastic fungus and dog cancer..medicinal mushrooms!?

Yes, you read that right.  Certain kinds of mushrooms have immune boosting and anti-cancer effects. Some examples of these mushrooms include Shitake (yes, the same one we eat in Chinese restaurants), Maitake, Reishi, Cordyceps, Coriolus, Agaricus and Cordyceps. The good folks over at Aloha Medicinals have known about this forever.  I spoke with Dr. John…

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EGCG and dog cancer: beyond chemo, radiation and surgery

So you feel that there is more than chemotherapy, radiation and surgery for dogs with cancer? So do I, and we are correct! Here’s just one example: EGCG (epigallocatechin-3-gallate). This is a naturally occurring substance found in green tea.   EGCG has several anticancer effects that are very real.  This substance is in trials at…

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Predicting Chemotherapy Reactions in Dogs: MDR 1

Hi everyone! What about chemo safety in dogs, anyway? How do we know whether a given dog with cancer will tolerate chemotherapy? Well, for some drugs, there is a test that can give us info.  The test is for mutations in a gene called MDR 1, or ABCB delta 1. This gene make a protein…

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