I Hope He Has Cancer

“I hope he has cancer.” I said that recently, in reference to little Dash, a two year old Persian. I really said it, and I really meant it. Of course when I caught myself in the thought it was quite the trip. Wow, cancer treatment is a whole new ballgame!

Dash was a small bundle of smoky grey affection. He seemed generally healthy but he had some problems show up in his lab work. Suddenly his choices of diagnosis were FIP (feline infectious peritonitis) or a malignancy. I had more confidence of treating the possible cancer than of treating the possible FIP. That realization was a real shocker for me. The reason for my confidence of choice was a relatively new medicine called Neoplasene®.

Neoplasene® is a relatively new drug approved for veterinary use. It is derived from the perennial herb bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis). It is so named because the sap of the root is a reddish color. It has historically been used as a dye, an emetic (induces vomiting) and a wart and tumor treatment, esp. by Native Americans. In cancer it has been used as an escharotic paste called Black Salve, which destroys much or all of the flesh it comes into contact with, whether it is healthy or not. This is indiscriminate necrosis. The revolutionary new drug Neoplasene is not whole bloodroot nor is it Black Salve, anymore than stainless steel is iron ore. It is, in part, an isolate of the active ingredients of bloodroot called benzylisoquinolone alkaloids, with the primary one being sanguinarine. This makes all the difference.

I'll be posting more about Neoplasene, and why I find it so amazing, in future posts.