October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, but breast cancer doesn’t just threaten people, it also threatens the health of dogs and cats.
Breast cancer occurs in dogs and cats and is equally serious. It is more common in dogs and than cats, but when a cat gets it in can be far more aggressive.
Symptoms:
Dogs normally have five mammary glands on both the right and left side of their abdomen and chest. When tumors develop, they most commonly begin in the lower glands toward the groin. They can be single or multiple nodules and feel like a solid mass or as soft swellings. Most commonly, they may feel like small pieces of pea gravel just under the skin and have smooth or irregular surfaces.
Growth rates can be rapid in just a short period of time and it’s not unusal for them to double in size every month or so.
It’s Most Common In:
Mammary tumors are more common in unspayed, middle-aged female dogs between five and ten years of age. But they can, on rare occasions, be found in dogs as young as two years old.
Having a dog spayed before her first heat cycle can eliminate her chance of ever developing breast cancer. The chance goes up to one in four if she is spayed after just two heat cycles. Removing of the source of reproductive hormones is the reason for such a powerful preventive effect.
How Can Tumors Be Treated?
Many of the same treatments used for people are used for dogs with this type of cancer
. Surgery is the treatment of choice and can be done in a number of different ways, including removal of an entire row of mammary glands along with the lymph nodes in the groin and armpit or just by removing a solitary lump.
Chemotherapy is available in high-quality practices and radiation therapy at veterinary referral centers, but neither of those methods has been very successful in managing breast cancer in dogs.
The latest hope comes in the form of anti-hormonal drugs that may turn off the cancerous process.
Cancer Research:
The condition is so similar between people and dogs that advancements are mutually beneficial. Information from the American Association for Cancer Research indicates that trends in naturally occurring breast cancer in dogs has advanced knowledge about how this cancer grows and identified ways for controlling it in people.
Dogs help in these cancer studies because cancer occurs at similar rates in dogs and people. Dogs also live in our environment, eat similar foods, and they’re exposed to the same potential cancer-causing agents during their life. Also, biologically, they have similar immune system features.
There are, however, striking differences in the incidence of breast cancer between different breeds of dogs. Springer spaniels and Doberman Pinschers, for instance, have the highest incidence of breast cancer compared with the Rough Coated Collie, for which the risk is almost 65 times lower.
It’s exactly that difference that excites researchers who believe that this variation could be due to certain genes. Now, we know a lot of people who struggle with cancers that run in their families. Just imagine what could happen if we if we knew what that gene were; it could really help us learn how to shut down cancer.
If you want to contact the Pet Vet, you can reach Dr. Visser at either the Roseland Animal Hospital by calling 272-6100 or at the Center for Animal Health by calling 888-PETS-VETS.
