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THE FOOTHILLS FOCUS | THEFOOTHILLSFOCUS.COM | AUGUST 24, 2022
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Registry helps pet owners cope with canine cancer diagnoses BY LAURA LATZKO Foothills Focus Contributing Writer
W
hen pets are given a cancer diagnosis, pet parents may not know what to do or where to turn for support. While veterinarians try to provide them with information on the prognosis and treatments, these pet owners are often left with feelings of fear and sadness. Pets have become beloved members of families and daily fixtures in their lives, especially since the height of COVID-19. Dr. Theresa Fossum, a board-certified veterinary surgeon based in Carefree, is part of an effort to create a registry and index that will provide valuable information for pet owners, veterinarians and researchers. The national Canine Cancer Registry and Canine Cancer Care Index will offer resources for pet parents and medical records for veterinarians, scholars, insurance companies and pet food and
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drug research companies. While there are a number of European registries focused on cancer in humans and pets, there has been a lack of this in the United States. This new registry and index were designed to provide important tools needed to advance cancer care for dogs. Fossum was interested in developing a Texas and a national canine cancer registry while she was on faculty at Texas A&M University 12 years ago. However, she said the technology was not yet available for this type of registry. “We didn’t have the technology that would allow us to pull information from electronic medical records without veterinarians having to put the information in again,” Fossum said. “They were going to have to double enter data and that wasn’t feasible. Veterinarians don’t have the time to do that.” Fossum, CEO of Epic Veterinary Specialists and CEO and co-founder of Dr. Fossum’s Pet Care, said technology has
finally caught up to the point where this type of electronic registry is possible. The advisory board responsible for this registry is made up of oncologists and veterinarians from around the country. Dr. Craig Clifford, a medical oncologist, is co-chairing the board with Fossum. To start the process, the board commissioned a Gallup survey of over 3,500 dog parents, conducted in March to better understand the issues faced. The survey helped the board to get a sense of the high incidence of canine cancer; dog parents’ belief that there needs to be more treatment for canine cancer; their hesitancy in having their pets undergo cancer treatments due to financial concerns, side effects and pet age and the prevalence of anxiety, depression, sleeping problems and missed work for pet owners dealing with canine cancer diagnoses. “One of the things that we took home from this is that while in general, we try
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to do a good job communicating with owners, the ones that have to deal with a devastating diagnosis like cancer, we need more resources for these people to reach out to, whether it’s mental health professionals or individuals who’ve had dogs with similar cancers,” Fossum said. During the survey, dog owners also expressed the desire to have a national canine cancer registry to better understand cancers in dogs and their treatments. Fossum said an important part of growing the registry will be informing pet owners about it. “The more pet owners that know about the registry, that can talk about their veterinarians, tell them about it and allow us access to their records, the faster and better the registry will grow and the more valuable it will be,” Fossum said. The registry started with a review of
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