Cats with feline injection-site sarcoma (FISS) often have noncancerous tissue removed with their tumors as a precaution. This can have detrimental effects on felines, so Dr. Milan Milovancev, professor of small animal surgery, is studying ways to be more precise in determining which tissues are noncancerous.
“Older studies showed that if you had bigger margins, cats would live longer,” Milovancev said. “The previous margin guidelines of 2 to 3 centimeters had been found to be inadequate, and the new guidelines were 5, which seemed like a big jump, and in some of these cats may cause a lot of unnecessary suffering.
“The net take-home is that yes, 2 to 3 centimeters is indeed inadequate, but we didn’t find any tumors getting close to 5 centimeters. We can reduce morbidity by surgically removing what we need to take out, and leaving what doesn’t need to be taken out.”
