The way we diagnose cancer depends on where it starts or what the symptoms are. If your cat came to see me and they were vomiting a bunch, I may start with an abdominal ultrasound and some lab work, and likely some x-rays. Those would be the three things that would start, and I may get a diagnosis just from that, or I may have to do a biopsy in addition. It depends on the type of cancer. I may find something on your cat's skin. I may stick a tiny needle in it and get some cells and determine what the cancer type is from that. Again, it depends on the type and location as to how we're going to collect information and get a diagnosis.

Yeah, we use medicine all the time for cancers, and we use surgery all the time, too. Again, it just depends on the type of cancer.

The cure rate for cat cancer varies tremendously with the type of cancer and the stage that we find it in. Just like with people, if we catch something super early, the outcome is generally better. You may have a melanoma on your skin, and if we catch it early and get it off, that may be the end of it. You may have a melanoma in your skin that sits there for five years, and it's already metastasized to the lungs, so it does depend on the time when we catch it, but really, there are many cancers that we can completely cure in cats. Make sure to have an annual cat wellness exam, and get in early if you find a funny lump or bump on your cat.

Yeah, for sure. I think we learn more about cancer all the time, and in my career, which has been a pretty lengthy one so far, I've learned a lot more about cancers and how to treat them. We have more and more tools at our disposal to use. Chemotherapy is continuously being studied to know what's the best way to go. Surgery options change depending on when we do studies, and we realize what is a better way to go, whether surgery first versus chemotherapy, and so things do change all the time.

Again, treatment varies tremendously, but surgery and chemotherapy are probably the two most common.