Compounding for cancer in companion animals: therapeutic options and case reports

Americans spend more than $20 billion per year on health care for their pets which are considered by many owners to be members of the family. In the past, the diagnosis of cancer in a companion animal could be considered a death sentence, but today, drugs designed for use in human patients offer a good quality of life and extended survival for many veterinary cancer patients. Often, the key to the success of that treatment is compounding, in which doses of manufactured drugs that would prove toxic to a cat or dog are reformulated into appropriate strenths or concentrations that provide beneficial therapy. In this article, two case reports describe the use of anticancer agents in dogs, and formulations for the compounding of several antineoplastic agents for veterinary patients are presented.