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Feline Breast cancer researchThis is a discussion thread · 2 replies Hey everybody! I’ve gotten together with my good friend Peggy to find a way to support feline breast cancer research and to honor her kitty, Queen Tallulah at the same time. I’ve been in contact with a Dr. in the Oncology Dept at UC Davis who is doing a clinic trial and we have an opportunity to not only support the research but to help defer the costs to the parents of all the kitties in these trials. They've got a huge amount of vet bills with this disease and these donations could help make all the difference to many pet parents. It took me a long time to even find a place that’s doing research for Feline Breast Cancer. This was the ONLY one I found and I had to write to several universities and animal cancer research facilities. When I started IBDKitties over three years ago, not much was known about feline IBD. Thankfully we’ve spread awareness and have helped hundreds, if not more, kitties and parents. Feline breast cancer is picking up speed due to the large amount of ferals, abandoned animals, etc. Our goal is to do the same; spread awareness and make people understand how important it is to have their cat spayed! And also to help treat the ones that have unfortunately been afflicted with it. Here's the info: Like the canine disease, mammary cancer in cats is preventable (spay early: 4-6 mo). The problem that most owners run into is that they have adopted an adult cat or a stray and no true age is known. By the second heat (usually by month 9-12), the propensity for mammary tumor has been set and the development of the tumor does not occur for 10-12 more years! The fact that spaying is protective against the development of mammary cancer in the cat has only been known for about 5 years. Unfortunately oncologists have not gotten the word out to enough general practitioners as of yet. At UC Davis, they are currently investigating the role of Gemcitabine in feline mammary carcinoma. This drug is good in the human breast clinic but has had a dismal track record in veterinary medicine. But they believe that they’ve found the optimal (non-toxic but useful) dose in cats and have a clinical trial investigating the identified dose in feline mammary cancer. Donations would help defer the owner's costs of therapy for their kitties along with furthering research and development of this drug treatment. Help spread the word about Feline Breast Cancer awareness and help others at the same time by purchasing a bracelet in honor of Queen Tallulah, who lost her battle with this disease on August 23, 2010. 100% of the proceeds go directly to UC Davis for these purposes. To purchase a bracelet please visit: http://ibdkitties.net/giftshops.html . As with what I did in honoring Alex with my site, we're honoring Queen T's memory in paying it forward. Please post to your social media sites as well! Hope to see you all with your pretty pink Queen T bracelets! Thanks for your continued support to helping animals Lisa & the furbrats Hi Alfinnlay  to continue our talk about feline cancer, do you have any reference to studies with numbers like I mentioned in the other thread? That's probably true that non spayed cats have a higher risk of cancer, but how much higher is that exactly? Are there numbers like that? What studies have been made to back up the statement early spaying helps? I don't want to get into paranoia, nor do I want to defy proven facts so I'm being nerdy and I'd love to know as much information as possible.RIP Tallulah  Regular Participant159 H Maestro  , thank you for wanting to learn more about this issue, I appreciate it and it's really important to not only learn about it but to help pass the information along as much as possible. Since my website is about IBD and I already work full time on it, I'm helping my good friend out with the cancer research on the side and because I understand her wanting to direct the pain of her loss towards helping others. I have already asked the research Dept. at UC Davis for statistics and they are currently working on it but don't have any at this moment as they are truly the only ones in the country working on this research. The wording I have in that info part is FROM UC Davis, not me. But it's really common knowledge to be truthful about spaying and neutering. A friend of mine has 2 kitties recovering from breast cancer surgery. One is already receiving chemo and the other just had surgery Friday. She rescues strays and knows a lot about this subject as her vet has told her these very things many times. She'll be writing a page for my Parent's Speak section about her kitties, about breast cancer in felines and will give as much information on it as she can. When that is done and up on my site I'll be glad to let you know. I suggest if you really want statistics that you write to UC Davis here:http://www.vetmed.ucdavis.edu/ccc/contact_directions.cfm . There's an email address and phone #. I could give you links about spaying and neutering to prevent these diseases but I googled it and I came up with a ton of references, links and facts: https://www.google.com/search?q=spay+or+neuter+to+prevent+cancer&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.m... . Having said all of this, again I emphasize that I am under no circumstances saying that your pet or any pet is going to get cancer just because they haven't been spayed or neutered now or before the age of 6 months to a year. But if you were to call your vet and ask about this, they will tell you that it's fact that it's a very valuable and easy way to prevent these diseases from happening. I did just review the letter I received from the oncology department about feline breast cancer and there a section I found that I did not include in my post: Small tumors (<3/4 inch) can be cured with RADICAL surgical excision (meaning, the ENTIRE CHAIN ON THE AFFECTED SIDE). Once the tumor is more than 1 inch, chemotherapy plays a very important role. For tumors greater than 1 inch, surgery alone provides about 250 days survival. The addition of chemotherapy provides a survival of >500 days (or a doubling). For tumors greater than 2.5 inches, the numbers are dismal although the chemotherapy continues to improve survival. Does any of this help? I don't think I have much more information personally about this but again, email or call UC Davis and they would be happy to help you, they're great about that.   | Have a question? People are waiting to help. Interesting stuff |
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