Description
The administration of chemotherapy to cats represents a potentially effective way to provide significant benefits in tumour control with a good quality of life for certain feline cancers. There are many positive aspects of being able to do this in practice including shorter travel times for feline patients, convenience for owners and professional and personal development working in this patient centred field of veterinary medicine. There are however a number of important considerations when prescribing this treatment modality. These include patient and owner compliance with treatment protocols, the administration of drugs safely, the occurrence and management of treatment related side effects and the handling of patients in the hospital and then home environment after treatment, where there is the risk of exposure to patient excreta and saliva and therefore drug metabolites. As the vast majority of chemotherapy agents used in veterinary oncology are human products, available tablet sizes and injectable drug concentrations can also pose challenges for accurate and safe dosing of medications and prevention of toxicity often requires the use of reformulated drugs. Some medications are also dosed orally on a continuous basis and therefore nurse and veterinary staff in practice must be able to educate on the safe handling of chemotherapy agents, demonstrate drug administration and establish that this can be done safely by the owners at home. In this webinar there are 5 key learning objectives:
To identify cancer diagnoses where chemotherapy represents an important and effective treatment modality
To understand how to establish safe and effective chemotherapy protocols in practice or in the home environment if appropriate
To understand how to manage chemotherapy related side effects in feline patients
To understand what is meant by patient quality of life and how to measure and assess it
To develop skills in communication of information relating to serious or terminal diagnoses and how to implement effective end of life care for feline cancer patients
Dr. Iain Grant qualified from the University of Bristol in 1990 and worked for 4 years in mixed practice in Yorkshire before moving to live in New Zealand where he worked in small animal practice for 7 years. With an active interest in science and broadcast communication, he completed a 1-year Diploma in Natural History Film making in 2002. He then moved to Sydney to take up a position as veterinary business development manager for Nestlé Purina Petcare in their pet nutrition business. Iain moved to the USA in 2004, completing a residency in medical oncology at the Universities of California Davis and Ohio State. In 2008 he was appointed as a clinician teacher at The University of Liverpool where he worked for several years before moving to The University of Glasgow in mid-2013. In 2016 Iain moved to his current position in private speciality practice. Iain is also co-director of Chemopet LLP, a company providing consultancy advice and safely prepared chemotherapy pharmaceuticals for treatment of small animal cancer patients in practice. Iain’s research interests include quality of life considerations in veterinary cancer patients, cancer pain and proteomics in canine lymphoma. Iain is the vice president of the European Society of Veterinary Oncology and holds the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine Diploma in small animal medical oncology. He is also a RCVS recognised Specialist in Oncology.
