Dictating my thoughts for the oncologists at CSU, others who have dogs with nasal adenocarcinoma, and in the interest of science.
Over the weekend Murphy's ability to breath through his snout has diminished significantly. It seems this new tumor is spreading quickly. We hope the radiation will stop this growth almost immediately. In laymans terms here's how it works:
Cancer cells are referred to as 'immortal' because they divide unabatedly. The first one, not sure what scientists call it; perhaps the parental or originator, has a gene that for some reason is turned on telling it to start dividing. That one cell becomes two which becomes four, etc. into you have a tumor mass consisting of millions of cells. Radiation therapy attempts to interfere with the tumor cells' ability to continue mitotic division thereby stopping growth. The cells that can't divide eventually die off.
Back to Murphy. Even if this massive three day dose of radiation halts tumor growth, it'll still be restricting airflow in the interim. We've already discussed a surgical option in Dr. Withrow's words taking a roto-router and cleaning the tumor out but that presents some serious problems.
That got me thinking this morning. How can we improve breathing through his snout without surgery and how do we do something like this in humans? Well we know that when people have clogged arteries we place a stent in them permitting improved blood flow. Plus, stents are now drug delivery systems so this might be a way to administer chemo directly into the tumor site.
Must discuss this with Dr. Withrow...
Over the weekend Murphy's ability to breath through his snout has diminished significantly. It seems this new tumor is spreading quickly. We hope the radiation will stop this growth almost immediately. In laymans terms here's how it works:
Cancer cells are referred to as 'immortal' because they divide unabatedly. The first one, not sure what scientists call it; perhaps the parental or originator, has a gene that for some reason is turned on telling it to start dividing. That one cell becomes two which becomes four, etc. into you have a tumor mass consisting of millions of cells. Radiation therapy attempts to interfere with the tumor cells' ability to continue mitotic division thereby stopping growth. The cells that can't divide eventually die off.
Back to Murphy. Even if this massive three day dose of radiation halts tumor growth, it'll still be restricting airflow in the interim. We've already discussed a surgical option in Dr. Withrow's words taking a roto-router and cleaning the tumor out but that presents some serious problems.
That got me thinking this morning. How can we improve breathing through his snout without surgery and how do we do something like this in humans? Well we know that when people have clogged arteries we place a stent in them permitting improved blood flow. Plus, stents are now drug delivery systems so this might be a way to administer chemo directly into the tumor site.
Must discuss this with Dr. Withrow...
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