- Cancer sucks, right?
We all hate cancer, but there's one cancer
that I really hate most of all,
and this vlog is all about it.
We are talking about cat oral squamous cell carcinoma.
Let's do it. Let's break it down.
Let's find out why I hate this cancer so much.
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Oral squamous cell carcinoma, or SCC,
is a common cancer and accounts
for about three to 10% of cancers in kitties,
and what's frustrating about it is we don't have
a lot of good treatment options,
so the take-home message for this, for me,
when I'm seeing a family with a cat
with squamous cell carcinoma is that we
are going to focus on comfort and nutritional support,
and the problem with this cancer
is it's really hard to detect them early.
We're not looking in our pet's, dog's or cat's, mouth
on a regular basis, so it's really hard
to diagnose them early when they're most treatable,
and they're very invasive, into the underlying tissues,
into the bones, the upper and lower bones,
and if you watched my video on melanoma, dog melanoma,
a tumor that is of the lower jaw, towards the front,
is gonna be more surgical, but the upper jaw, the maxilla,
is connected to the nasal bones, and some of these tumors
are of the tongue, so it just makes them very difficult
to be able to remove them surgically,
and they're very invasive into the bone,
so they're a really frustrating cancer.
Occasionally, we will find a cat with a small lesion,
a small tumor, and they can do well,
and if you do some Googling, you do some research,
or you talk to oncologist, occasionally we will
have long-term survivors, and I have had a few cats
over the years do really well with a rostral,
so towards the front of the face, towards the nose.
Mandibular, lower jaw, lesion, I had one cat
that we did stereotactic radiation that lived years,
so there are some occasional long-term survivors,
and in the literature and the published studies,
you can find some numbers that are gonna be
a little bit more optimistic, but again,
I do find this to be a very challenging tumor to treat
because it's hard to find them early,
and a lot of the different treatment options
that we're gonna talk about: surgery, radiation,
and chemotherapy, don't really seem to add length
of life to the kitties and improve their quality of life.
So again, that's why I tend to go towards
this palliative, comfort approach to treatment.
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One question I often get asked is, "What causes cancer?"
And there actually been a couple of studies
that have looked at association,
and three things have been associated
with an increased risk of developing
oral squamous cell carcinoma.
One is environmental tobacco smoke,
so kitties that live in the home with a smoker.
The second one is canned tuna,
so cats that ate tuna were more likely to get it,
and flea collar use, so those are three things
that have been associated with oral squamous cell carcinoma.
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So, what are the symptoms?
What might you see at home for a kitty
with squamous cell carcinoma or any mouth tumor?
So usually, these are middle-age kitties,
so about 10 to 12 years of age, and the hard part
is if they're in the back of the mouth,
it may be hard to detect, but some of the things
that you may see is some of the kitties
are gonna have difficulty eating or swallowing.
They may be not eating as much, and so, you know,
we often say anorexia, so not eating,
but sometimes it's not complete not eating.
They're just not eating as much, or they're picky.
They're, you know, they're not eating the same foods.
They wanna eat, but it just is painful for them to eat,
and sometimes, there's weight loss,
and I have a whole separate vlog on weight loss.
Weight loss can be very challenging
to pick up in our own pets.
They're fluffy. It can be hard to notice.
My own kitty lost three pounds.
You know, this is me just saying it can be really hard
on our own pets to know that they're losing weight,
so weighing them on a regular basis is a good thing.
So I'm gonna put that link about weight loss
because that's a really important thing to be watching.
So they could be drooling.
They could have stinky, stinky mouth, right.
You may notice blood, blood on their bedding,
blood on your bed, you know, wherever they're sleeping,
blood on the couch.
You may notice blood in the water bowl,
so there could be some bleeding from their mouth,
and you may notice that.
Sometimes if it's of the upper jaw,
their nose'll be running, so nasal discharge,
and you're gonna be think, "Well, they have
an upper respiratory infection or a cold
or something like that," but it could be something
in the mouth as well, and then some of these tumors
will actually be growing behind the eye.
So the eye can be displaced.
It'd be pushed out or pushed to the side,
and that can be a mouth tumor in the back
of the upper jaw, and that might be something
that you see as well, and then sometimes,
your cat may be yawning or opening its mouth,
and you may notice something abnormal in their mouth.
Another way that these cancers are often found
is they go in for dentistry, or they go in
for some other procedure, where a veterinary technician
or your doctor is intubating them,
and they notice the mass in the mouth,
or in a dental, there are teeth that are loose,
and they notice that there's something,
you know, abnormal underneath.
In this vlog, I'm showing you some pictures
of some patients of mine and some of my colleagues,
and, you know, some of them are really big lesions,
and they're really quite advanced and, you know,
some of them, Oreo was a little one on the tongue.
So they really range, but they can be quite destructive
when they start to, you know, take over parts
of the cat's face and things like that,
so I'm sorry if some of the pictures
are a little bit much, but again,
I just wanna show you the range of what they look like.
So those are some of the things that we're going to see.
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In terms of the tests that we're gonna do,
typically to diagnose what it is, we're gonna do a biopsy.
We can aspirate them.
If you watch any of my other videos,
you know I love aspirates.
Sometimes aspirates will not be diagnostic in these
'cause there's a lot of inflammation and things
like that, so often, we'll need to do a biopsy
to make a diagnosis, and your vet will talk to you
about the other work of, often, you know,
we're gonna do blood work for general health screening.
This is a cancer that, in general,
does not metastasize early,
so it tends to stay local in the mouth.
Sometimes it will go to these lymph nodes,
the local lymph nodes.
Usually if it's gonna spread to the chest,
it's gonna be late in the course of the disease,
so the thing that these kitties are usually succumbing to,
and I know this is hard to hear,
but the thing that these kitties usually die from
is poor quality of life and controlling the pain
and getting them their nutritional support.
Again, going back to what my goals are
as their oncologist in treating them:
comfort, pain control, and nutritional support.
So there are some tests that we may do.
I have seen a few spread over the years
and were usually pretty advanced one.
I'm not saying chest X-rays aren't worth doing,
but again, you know, we're gonna talk to your doctor
about what tests they wanna do.
You know, we're gonna wanna make the diagnosis
to figure out which of the cancers that it is,
do some blood work, make sure everything's okay
for the medications that we're gonna need to prescribe.
You may have an early one.
You may be talking about, you know,
more aggressive treatment, but these are some of the tests
that you're gonna be talking about
with your cancer specialist or your veterinarian.
Remember, I always have links below
on where you could find a cancer specialist.
I also do consultation through Fidu Vet.
Your veterinarian can consult with me
and can go over all of your medical records that way.
They'll be links below.
Best way to know how extensive these tumors are
is going to be a CT scan, a CAT scan of your kitty,
a CAT scan of your cat, and that is because, again,
remember these tumors are, even though they're
of the lining of the gums and everything,
they're very invasive into bone,
so that is gonna be the best way
to see how extensive they are.
CT scans, I'll put another link below,
but they do require anesthesia,
and there's added cost compared to X-rays.
Problem with X-rays of the face,
of the skull, they're not very helpful.
Dental X-rays sometimes can be helpful,
but to figure out how extensive it is,
there are gonna be a CT scan.
If we're just gonna treat with palliative care,
I'm not doing a lotta CT scans
for cats with oral squames.
Usually the ones I'm doing CTs are the ones
that we think we might be doing treatment for,
so radiation, or if we found one early,
we might be doing surgery, but again,
it really depends on what our goals are, you know,
with treatment for this case.
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So I'm gonna wrap up part one
on kitty cat oral squamous cell carcinoma with that,
and join me for part two, where we
will be focusing on treatment.
Spoiler alert: we're going to be focusing
on palliative treatment options.
I'll talk to you about why I don't really emphasize surgery
and radiation and chemotherapy, and my big emphasis
is really on supportive or palliative options.
We'll talk about nutritional support,
pain management, and things like that.
So please join me for part two.
Thank you so much for watching.
I will read all your comments.
I appreciate the positive support.
Please don't forget to subscribe,
and I look forward to seeing you back at the next video.
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