Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Electrochemotherapy with bleomycin treats cat skin cancer nodules
By Tozon, Natasa et al.·Published in Journal of feline medicine and surgery·2014·Veterinary Faculty·View original on PubMed →
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Original publication title: Electrochemotherapy with intravenous bleomycin injection: an observational study in superficial squamous cell carcinoma in cats.
- Species:
- cat
Plain-English summary
An 8-year-old domestic shorthair cat was diagnosed with superficial squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) on its nose and underwent a treatment called electrochemotherapy (ECT) using bleomycin. Out of 17 SCC nodules treated, 81.8% of the cats showed complete response, with some remaining cancer-free for over three years. While two cats experienced recurrence of the cancer after a few months, the treatment was generally well tolerated with no significant side effects. ECT proved to be an effective and safe option for managing this type of skin cancer in cats, especially when other treatments are too invasive or costly.
People also search for: cat squamous cell carcinoma treatment · electrochemotherapy for cats · cat cancer treatment options
Abstract
The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy and safety of electrochemotherapy (ECT) with bleomycin for treatment of squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) in cats. Between March 2008 and October 2011, 11 cats with 17 superficial SCC nodules in different clinical stages (ranging from Tis to T4), located on nasal planum (6/11), pinnae (3/11) and both locations (2/11), were included in a prospective non-randomised study. Sixteen of 17 SCC nodules were treated with ECT (15/16 with single session and in one case with two sessions); one nodule was surgically removed. Altogether, complete response (CR) was achieved for 81.8% (9/11) cats and 87.5% (14/16) nodules, lasting from 2 months up to longer than 3 years. Only 2/9 cats in which CR was initially observed, had recurrence 2 and 8 months after the ECT procedure. In the remaining two cats with highly infiltrative spread into adjacent tissues, progression of the disease was observed, despite ECT, and both were euthanased 4 and 5 months after the procedure. ECT in cats was well tolerated and no evident local or systemic side effects were observed. The results of this study suggest that ECT is a highly effective and safe method of local tumour control of feline cutaneous SCCs. It should be considered as an alternative treatment option, especially when other treatment approaches are not acceptable by the owners, owing to their invasiveness, mutilation or high cost.
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Search related cases →Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24127456/