Should I put my cat through chemo?

[Lauren_cat167]

My cat is 12 years old and has recently been diagnosed with a mammary adenocarcinoma. She had the tumor excised, then had radical surgery to remove mammary gland and tissue from her. The vet said that chemotherapy was the next step, but to first find out if if would increase estimated survival time, otherwise there would be no point in proceeding with the chemotherapy. She gave me some statistics from a study that put surgery + adjunctive doxorubicin treatment at 441 days mean survival time. This would indicate that there would be no gain from the chemotherapy, but does not specify if this is with just tumor excision or so called 'radical surgery'. I was wondering if anyone could offer any information on this - my cat is in good health otherwise, the tumor was less than 2cm in diameter (the vet reckoned i caught it early). I would go ahead if I thought there was benefit and extended life expectancy, but after two major operations I don't want to put my cat through any unnecessary suffering for little or no benefit.

[Rick1956777]

I appreciate your concern & opinion.
When I discovered my 2 year 9 month cat had developed a  lymphoma cancer tumour which had strangulated his left side kidney, my vet's opinion was to go ahead & extract the kidney, which was a straight forward operation, he recovered quickly & the vet's further advice was to go for the chemo IV treatment there, every three weeks, with weekly tablets at home in between & also regular steroid tablets & appetite ones. Although this worried me & the amount of chemicals, my vet (who has 25 years practice experience) said it would be worth it to proceed, as he was young, strong & resilient.
My cat lived for a further 10 months, he enjoyed most of that time, although he had his bad days, he always bounced back & lived a normal life, playing outside with his twin brother, climbing, running, playing etc., although his appetite become poor, his weight remained stable, until three weeks before he became weak, dehydrated & lost nearly half a kilo in weight, it was a drastic change & with my vets & my self's agreed opinion, he was put to a peaceful sleep, before he suffered critically.
Those 10 months was extremely special in my lifetime, the many moments & extreme closeness, love & understanding we shared will stay with me everyday forever.He loved life & was so very beautiful & sweet.
Was I wrong ?

[KittyCatLover23]

I was going to post a long story then I realized this was old. Anyways, to cut the story short for anyone else wondering - Chemo should always be a last resort. My friend's cat was 7 and went through it and it killed her.

[janelovescats12]

What ever happened with your cat? I never liked chemo options myself. :/

[tracetheace]

  Hi there

Can I ask how long did your cat survive after ?  

[zodiacqueen]

Hi, you definitely NEED a specific diagnosis of cancer before you go the chemo route.  What if this thickening is not cancer?  And, it's such a small area!

Please give some more details on your cat's condition.  What made you take him to the vet in the first place?  What is the vet's opinion of the thickened area?

And, please start this as a new thread.  You will get many more responses that way.  This is an old thread and many people skip over the old ones.

[wooks]

After two vomiting spells and an some constipation My almost 15 beautiful boy had a complete blood panel and x rays and all looked great.  Then I had an ultrasound last week in my vet's office by a visiting radiologist I never met.  My vet met with me afterward and said Wookie had a thickening of the intestines but it was very small so no aspiration was done because she didn't think she could get near enuf to get a good sample.  Then I was basically given a choice of let it be or surgery to remove it and resection the intestine. If I chose let it be, she never even mentioned prednisone to ease the pain.   All the posts I've read seem to have had definite diagnosis of what they were dealing with before choosing what route to go.  Did I miss something here?  I feel like I don't have the whole story and should start over with a new vet but hate to put him thru the driving and tests again.  He tolerates it but is much happier at home.