cat breast cancer !! seeking advice

[mustafa811]

my cat "nans" is a 16 years old female , she is diabetic and thyrotoxic with elevated liver enzymes for unkown reason , she also has some problems with git where she develops a severe constipation but these episodes only happen once per year or every two


despite of her medical problems but her health and activity is pretty natural for her age , she can still play and run but for shorter intervals than she was younger

she was sleeping beside me and i was doing her some belly massage and i felt a very small lump near her right 1st nipple that wasn't there before

the mass was less than 1 cm in size , so i took her to the pet clinic where the vet told me it is most probably breast cancer with more than 85% probability, he did a chest xray to detect metastasis but he didn't fine any

he didn't recommend surgery after knowing the age and the past medical history of "nans" and i agreed with him since i am a physician too and the surgery would be very risky here that we might lose her , but still i have a feeling that there is something that could be done ?! i mean if that mass is very small why not just resect it only in a minor operation ?! i don't know about that ?! should i seek another vet's opinion ?! but i don't want to cause my cat any further discomfort

she looks peaceful and doesn't feel anything yet

i read on the net that if the lesion is small below 1-2 cm the cat could have a survival rate of like 3 years ?! but is this with surgery or without ?! and does surgery improve the odds or recurrence will occur ?!

so i would be glad to hear your opinions

that's my old post with more history and a photo if you want to check it : viewtopic.php?f=13&t=8614&p=60519#p60519

[Mollycat]

Hello again Mustafa, glad to hear Nans is in relatively good health and still enjoying her wonderful life with you.

As you're very aware no matter how much medicine can do every living being still has an end date and although some cats do live into their 20s it is unusual. So Nans is already quite old, though she is very active, her body still doesn't repair and recover and handle traumas like it did when she was young. So however fit and active she is, you also have to consider, with the illnesses she already has, how fit she really is to take anaesthesia and surgery, even if it is half an hour of very minor surgery?

I just found this from Ohio State University, is this what you read too? https://vet.osu.edu/vmc/companion/our-s ... 03%20years. Seems to say all the same things and the 85% malignancy rate is a generalisation. This has a lot more detail and according to this it seems the prognosis given in the first article is with surgery, as sadly without surgery life expectancy is not much more than 12 months https://www.dvm360.com/view/malignant-m ... roach-cats. But it is still worth thinking very carefully about the recovery time and quality of life. The life in the years is often more important than the years in the life.

[booktigger]

I'm sorry to hear this, as far as I'm aware, they have to remove the strip rather than just the lump as it spreads. A friend had the op done in her 13 year old and the recovery was hard, the wound where her first nipple was did keep coming apart just due to the location, so that is also something to bear in mind

[mustafa811]

thanks mollycat you have been of tremendous help to nans and me personally , also thanks booktigger for your opinion

yes that's the article molly , it is present on almost all cat pages , i just wanted to know the life expectancy of a breast carcinoma in cats without intervention , also i would be glad if other users shared their experience with me , and if it is only one year left i will try to give her as much love and care as i can ❤

[Sniper1]

Hi several years ago we took on a 12 year old with two mammary tumours one each side about the size of hazelnuts who also had kidney failure so was not judged suitable for surgery we had her for 3.5 years and it was the kidney failure that got her in the end although the mammary tumours grew slowly ond another one appeared they never bothered her or became sore or weepy

[mustafa811]

Hi several years ago we took on a 12 year old with two mammary tumours one each side about the size of hazelnuts who also had kidney failure so was not judged suitable for surgery we had her for 3.5 years and it was the kidney failure that got her in the end although the mammary tumours grew slowly ond another one appeared they never bothered her or became sore or weepy

thanks alot sniper1, pretty appreciate it , 2 of my main concerns were about longevity and pain , so you pretty much gave me hope
out there