Integrative Nutritional Therapy in Canine Cancer

In humans and animals, diet is an important aspect of cancer prevention and treatment. Although the research in this area is primarily in humans, studies have demonstrated that dietary therapy may be helpful in preventing or slowing the development of canine cancer and in supporting patients receiving standard care. In an integrative nutritional approach, the conventional therapy consists of specially designed diets that may include whole food items, probiotics, vitamins, fatty acids, and natural polyphenols. These can be custom designed to select for efficacy against particular cancer types and organ protection during toxic cancer treatments. Along with conventional therapy, the addition of traditional Chinese medicine and Chinese food therapy benefits modern clinical treatment with knowledge gleaned over several thousand years by Chinese physicians. For example, the herb Qing Hao (Artemisia) has anti-cancer effects in canine osteosarcoma cell lines and has also been seen to increase survival in small animal cancer patients. Gan Jiang (dry Ginger) has lessened the incidence of emesis in cisplatin-treated dogs. It is possible with consideration of knowledge from human literature, both ancient and modern, that syndrome differentiation in Chinese food therapy combined with conventional nutritional therapy, helps improve quality of life and may lengthen survival in canine patients with cancer.