Metronomic Chemotherapy for Dogs

Just like humans, dogs can get cancer. Treatment is available in the form of radiation therapy, surgical removal and through the administration of chemotherapy drugs.

  1. Metronomic Chemotherapy

    • Traditionally, chemotherapy is given to a dog and after a recovery period, the next dose is administered. In metronomic chemotherapy, a low dose of the chemotherapy drug is administered daily, with no recovery period.

    Advantages

    • Metronomic chemotherapy is believed to help destroy both cancer cells and the cells of the blood vessels that feed cancerous tumors. With lower doses of chemotherapy drugs given, it also could be less toxic than traditional chemotherapy.

    Considerations

    • No peer-reviewed clinical trials of the advantages of metronomic chemotherapy in dogs have been published, so the effects of it have yet to be definitively established. Veterinarians use the treatment based on their success with it in previous patients, according to "Withrow and MacEwen's Small Animal Clinical Oncology."