Oncology

Our specialist-led oncology team acknowledge that each patient is different and requires a tailored and comprehensive diagnostic and treatment plan. We ensure pet owners are kept up to date with plans to ensure their wishes are taken into consideration along with costs and of course, quality of life.

We are happy to discuss and accept referrals for the following aspects of oncology:

• Investigation of suspected neoplasia
• Clinical staging of neoplasia
• Surgical oncology (including biopsies and tumour removal)
• Therapeutic options and expectations

We provide the following medical therapies:

• Conventional chemotherapy: uses the same drugs as are used in humans with cancer. But we reduce the dosages, simplify the protocols and extend the treatment intervals. This allows our patients to go through treatment usually with little to no side effects.
• Metronomic chemotherapy: the administration of a small, usually daily, dose of drugs. This approach works by inhibiting the tumour’s ability to develop its own blood vessels, limiting growth.
• Targeted molecular therapies: tyrosine kinase inhibitors differ from conventional chemotherapy as they bind to specific receptors on cancerous cells. This prevents the cancer cells from dividing and growing which slows or stops the growth of the tumour.
• Immunotherapy: uses the body’s immune system to fight the cancer. We offer melanoma and lymphoma vaccines as treatments for these types of cancer.

Common chemotherapy treatments and types of cancer treated include:

• Measurable tumours sensitive to chemotherapy (e.g. lymphoma).
• Adjuvant therapy to eradicate occult micrometastases (e.g. following the amputation of a limb due to osteosarcoma).
• Neoadjuvant therapy to downstage sensitive tumours or those with difficult margins before surgery (e.g. mast cell tumours).
• Palliative therapy for unresectable or metastasised tumours (e.g. bladder transitional cell carcinoma).