Caninecancer.org.au

l have been told that chemotherapy can be directly injected into some tumours.is this true,and does it work as well as other types.

Chemotherapy is commonly injected into tumours directly. The benefit is no risk of sickness-type side effects and a greatly increased dose (more effective) to the tumour. The down side is the drug only penetrates a few millimetres from wherever its placed and that large masses have very high pressure inside them which often limits drug absorption. In my practice it is most often used for 'mopping up' surgery sites when there is microscopic cancer remaining, but more aggressive surgery is not desirable or possible. Usually I combine it with electroporation, which is placing an electric current (safely) through the tumour which makes the cancer cells absorb the drug better. The total process is called electrochemotherapy. In some cases this is a single treatment, in others it is repeated up to 4 times at 1 to 2 week intervals. The tumours that have the most evidence base for this approach are soft tissue sarcomas (e.g. fibrosarcoma), mast cell tumours, squamous cell carcinomas and oral melanomas.

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Dr Ken Wyatt BSc BVMS FANZCVS
Specialist Veterinary Oncologist
Perth Veterinary Oncology

Thanks for reply.
Cancer doesnt seem to like heat?
If this is so,is there not some way to heat tumours up,obviously without affecting the animal.would this not have greater"kill" power over the tumour.i know in your reply that you do heat the tumour a little,but its only very mild.what do you think?
Thanks

Heating tumours is certainly done - often using microwaves. The evidence to show this is better than other techniques is lacking though. Definitely something to consider when other methods are not suitable. The 'simple' approach (heat bags etc) fails - the goal is to achieve temperatures in the 40's distributed throughout the tumour.
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Dr Ken Wyatt BSc BVMS FANZCVS
Specialist Veterinary Oncologist
Perth Veterinary Oncology