Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Evidence-based integrative medicine in clinical veterinary oncology.
- Journal:
- The Veterinary clinics of North America. Small animal practice
- Year:
- 2014
- Authors:
- Raditic, Donna M & Bartges, Joseph W
- Affiliation:
- Department of Small Animal Clinical Sciences · United States
- Species:
- dog
Plain-English summary
Integrative medicine in veterinary oncology combines traditional Western treatments with complementary therapies like herbs, dietary supplements, and acupuncture. There's a growing interest in this approach, but research on how effective it really is is still limited. Since dogs with natural tumors can help us understand human cancers, studying these therapies in dogs could benefit both pets and people. The paper reviews various herbs and supplements that have been tested in dogs and other species to see if they might help in treating cancer. Overall, while the interest is there, more research is needed to confirm how well these integrative therapies work in veterinary medicine.
Abstract
Integrative medicine is the combined use of complementary and alternative medicine with conventional or traditional Western medicine systems. The demand for integrative veterinary medicine is growing, but evidence-based research on its efficacy is limited. In veterinary clinical oncology, such research could be translated to human medicine, because veterinary patients with spontaneous tumors are valuable translational models for human cancers. An overview of specific herbs, botanics, dietary supplements, and acupuncture evaluated in dogs, in vitro canine cells, and other relevant species both in vivo and in vitro is presented for their potential use as integrative therapies in veterinary clinical oncology.
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Search related cases →Original publication: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25174902/