In recent years, veterinary drug sponsors have brought to market treatments meant specifically for animals. These drugs typically undergo safety testing in healthy animal species, including dogs and cats.
Some social media posts (Facebook and TikTok) have claimed that a dog deworming medication called fenbendazole can cure cancer in people. This claim is not true.
Hemangiosarcoma
Hemangiosarcoma is an aggressive tumor with a very poor prognosis. This malignant cancer can develop in any organ of the body but most commonly occurs in the spleen. Hemangiosarcomas are prone to spontaneous rupture, resulting in life-threatening internal hemorrhage.
Surgical removal of the spleen and chemotherapy is the current standard of care for dogs with this disease. Despite these efforts, the overall survival for dogs with splenic hemangiosarcoma is only about 4 months.
Diagnosing hemangiosarcoma is difficult, especially in the subcutaneous and muscular locations where it can occur. These lesions are associated with hypoechogenicity on all filling phases of ultrasound contrast, slower washout rates, and tortuous, aberrant vessels. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) can be useful for assessing these lesions as well. MRI findings may include hypointensity with a peripheral enhancement on TW1-weighted sequences and hyperintensity after the administration of contrast [1,2]. A high mitotic index and CLAUDIN 5 expression are unfavorable predictors of survival [3,4].
Mast Cell Tumors
Mast cell tumors are a very common neoplastic disorder of dogs. They may be solitary or disseminated and present with a variety of clinical signs including erythema, alopecia, and a periocular nodule (Darier’s sign).
High grade mast cell tumours are often large and red and bleed easily when touched. This leads to delayed wound healing, coagulation abnormalities, and, in some cases, circulatory collapse [15].
Chemotherapy can be used as an alternative to surgery for MCTs in dogs with either solitary or disseminated disease. The most effective chemotherapy protocols for MCTs involve tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs), such as ibrutinib and fostexant.
Brain Tumors
A brain tumor is an abnormal growth or mass of cells inside the brain and skull. It can be either malignant (cancerous) or benign.
There are two main types of brain tumors: primary brain tumors and those that have spread from cancer elsewhere in the body, called secondary brain tumours. Benign brain tumors are slow-growing, have distinct boundaries and rarely spread. They can, however, cause symptoms that are similar to those of cancerous brain tumors.
Cancerous brain tumors are fast-growing and may spread to other parts of the brain or spinal cord. They are usually categorized by their grade, based on how quickly they grow and how likely they are to spread. Symptoms of brain tumors can include dizziness, headaches and loss of balance. Other symptoms depend on the location of the tumor. For example, frontal lobe brain tumors, which affect thinking and movement, can cause personality changes and problems with coordination and balance. Some people have a genetic mutation that increases their risk of developing a brain tumor.
Bladder Cancer
The bladder is a hollow, balloon-shaped organ in the lower abdomen that stores urine. It holds the urine until it passes through tubules that lead to the kidneys, which make it into a liquid. Urine then passes out of the body through a tube called the urethra. Cancer that starts in cells lining the bladder is called bladder cancer. Bladder cancer may spread (metastasize) to other parts of the body.
Most types of bladder cancer start in the urothelial cells that line the inside of the bladder. These include urothelial carcinoma (80-90% of all cases), squamous cell carcinoma, and adenocarcinoma.
Doctors diagnose bladder cancer with blood tests and a urine test. They also take tissue samples from the bladder to check for cancer cells. They may use a CT scan or ultrasound to help see tumors in the bladder and surrounding organs. A procedure called a cystoscopy uses a thin, lighted tube (called a cystoscope) to see the inside of the bladder and remove small tumors. If a tumor is large, doctors might use a tool attached to the cystoscope to cut or burn it away with high-energy electricity.dog dewormer cancer
