Radiation therapy -- how well do cats tolerate it?

Hi, all,

I'm dealing with a diagnosis of fibrosarcoma (probably vaccine-
associated sarcoma, considering the location) for my 16-year old
female. One of the things I suspect the surgeon is going to bring up
in our consult on Wednesday is post-surgical radiation therapy. I'd
love to know if any of you have personal experience with this. I'm
not that interested in how much longer you think it made your cat
live; that's the kind of information I can find in clinical studies
online. What I want to know is: how much was your cat's quality of
life impacted? Did it make them sick, like humans get from radiation
therapy? Did they lose their hair? Was the treatment, in your
opinion, worth the outcome? Or if you had to do it all over again,
would you pass on the radiation therapy?

Thanks so much for any insight!

Amy

On Feb 8, 10:53*am, vox_dea wrote:
Hi, all,

I'm dealing with a diagnosis of fibrosarcoma (probably vaccine-
associated sarcoma, considering the location) for my 16-year old
female. *One of the things I suspect the surgeon is going to bring up
in our consult on Wednesday is post-surgical radiation therapy. *I'd
love to know if any of you have personal experience with this. *I'm
not that interested in how much longer you think it made your cat
live; that's the kind of information I can find in clinical studies
online. *What I want to know is: how much was your cat's quality of
life impacted? *Did it make them sick, like humans get from radiation
therapy? *Did they lose their hair? *Was the treatment, in your
opinion, worth the outcome? *Or if you had to do it all over again,
would you pass on the radiation therapy?

Thanks so much for any insight!

Amy



Amy,

My cat was recently diagnosed with thyroid carcinoma. I'm currently
trying to figure out if I want to put him through radiation (fairly
costly) or give him medicine everyday for the rest of his life. BUT in
doing my research I came across this website that gave a tremendous
amount of information as to the side effects and what will happen to
your pet following radiation treatments. I wish you good luck with
your cat and hope she gets well soon!
http://www.vet.uga.edu/hospital/smal.../radiation.php

Sorry for the late reply! I've spent the last couple of days juggling
a work crunch with taking care of my recovering cat (luckily, I work
at home). Thank you _so_ much for the link, which was extremely
informative. I guess I won't be making any decisions until the lab
work comes back and we hear about the margins.

Good luck with your cat's cancer, too.

Amy