My cat has been in remission for nearly 4 months now. My 16 y/o cat had a large tumor on the bottom of his tongue in December 2011. The biopsy results said it was Squamous cell carcinoma (SCC or SqCC). It is a fast growing cancer, and does not respond to chemo or radiation treatment. My vet estimated he had no more than 6 months, and said only 20% survive a year after diagnosis. She cut the tumor out in mid December but did not have clean margins (not all the cancer was removed). In 30 days it grew back. A second surgery was done 7 days after that (Jan 27), the visible tumor had doubled in size during that week, and again the margins were not clean. I did some research and found several products that were effective in treating this cancer (in humans, dogs and cats). I bought the Doctor's Best Artemisinin after I read the article, "Artemisinin - when cancer cells kill themselves." Please note, If your animal is undergoing radiation you must not use this herbal. The suggested dose for cats was 50mg twice a day. One of the side effects is loss of appetite, and I found my cat would stop eating at that dosage. I tried 50mg once a day, and he stopped eating after 4 days. I waited for him to regain his appetite and tried 25mg once a day. He tolerated that much better. This article and some scientific studies state that Artemisinin cannot be continually absorbed, and you need to break up treatment. The suggested number of on/off days varies widely, but I tried to do 5 days on and 5 days off. Some people mix it into wet food. I bought some smaller capsules and divided the 100 mg capsule up into 4 roughly equal doses. I tried to give him the Artemisinin on an empty stomach. This product acts by taking iron rich cancer cells and creating free radicals. Vitamin E (anti-oxidant) destroys free radicals. Every cat food I found had vitamin E in it. I suppose you could feed your cat a meat diet instead of using cat food. I also did not give him his vitamin pill on days I was dosing him with Artemisinin for the same reason. I used this product for about a month. When my cat had the tumor, he lost a pound and a half. I was trying to get him to gain some weight, and I discontinued this product. If the cancer came back then I was going to go back to this. The cancer has yet to come back, so I don't know if the Artemisinin got rid of it completely, helped shrink it, or did nothing at all. All I know is based on his current therapy the cancer has yet to return. Since March 20th he has only been getting the following daily: NIGHT 1/2 PetAlive C-Caps for Anti-Oxidant Support (60 Caps) NIGHT 1/2 Thorne Research Veterinary-Immugen (Canine & Feline) 120vc He eats Purina Cat Chow complete and friskies canned food. I tried to get him to eat grain free food (low carb), because cancer feasts on glucose for its rapid growth, but he prefers the Purina. He has been taking a blood pressure pill twice a day with a pill popper for several years and swallows pills usually without problems. I coat the capsule with canned food gravy and pop it in his mouth. I have a large cat (11 lbs, was 15) and the c-cap capsules aren't too big. I dump out half of the c-cap and fill it with half the Immugen. The Immugen pills are quite large, so I bought the smallest empty veggie capsules I could find and put the remaining halves of powder in those. I will post updates if his symptoms or treatment changes. Part of my treatment regime was taken from Dee's SCC cancer treatment for her cat Casper.
