Approaching a cancer treatment conversation with clients

In an interview with dvm360 at the Directions in Veterinary Medicine symposium in Nashville, Tennessee, Michael D. Lucroy, DVM, MS, DACVIM (Oncology), chief medical officer of Torigen Inc, gave tips on how to best discuss a recent cancer diagnosis with clients and how to move forward with treatment options.

The following is a partial transcript of the video.

Michael D. Lucroy, DVM, MS, DACVIM (Oncology): When we talk about cancer, that can often be a difficult conversation because cancer is a very emotionally charged word. And so I think first thing is to just try and understand what the parent's goals are. Are they really just wanting to have some extra time? Or are they in it to win it, and they want to do everything they can to provide a longer duration of survival? And I think at the back of our minds, in all these conversations, is regardless of what path we go down, how can we maintain the patient's quality of life, because that's very important in that patient-client interaction.

This is a terrible disease in many cases, but not always...just because the diagnosis is cancer, doesn't mean that's a terminal disease in every case. There are plenty of things we can do to help maintain that quality of life for the animal in front of us.