Valutazione di due differenti tipologie di stress in ambito oncologico veterinario

Veterinary oncology is a specialized branch in continuous growth thanks to the prolongation of the life of affection animals, which frequently incur tumor pathologies. In addition, pets are increasingly regarded as family members and for this reason owners have higher expectations of the veterinary services provided. This document concerns the issue of stress in the field of veterinary oncology, analyzed on two different fronts. The types of stress analyzed are: “oxidative stress” and the respective role in oncogenesis, but also the “psychosocial stress” suffered by a group of dog owners for whom a tumor diagnosis was made.Oxidative stress is a complex and debated topic in the medical field and the techniques for its measurement are different. In the present study the aim was to measure the redox state in canine cancer patients through the use of the d-ROMs test and the BAP test. The values of d-ROMs and BAP were measured in 31 dogs with cancer and 28 healthy dogs. The age of all the subjects analyzed had an inverse relationship with respect to the BAP value, but the group of sick dogs had higher levels, while d-ROMs did not differ between sick and healthy. No differences were observed between local disease and metastatic or systemic disease, and no differences were identified between dogs with carcinomas and dogs with lymphoma, but the mean of the BAP values of these two groups differed significantly from the mean of the BAP values of the healthy dogs. For both groups the BAP values were found to be within the normal limits. This result could indicate a compensatory mechanism for oxidative stress. The average of the d-ROMs values, on the other hand, was increased compared to the normal limits, probably due to a cumulative effect of oxidative stress with advancing age and any other pathologies not easily diagnosed with the tests performed to select the dogs healthy. In any case, the number of cases obtained is reduced and there was discrepancy between the subjects regarding the tumor histotype, the clinical stage and the histological grade. Further studies, with more patients, could help confirm a possible role of reactive oxygen substances in the development and progression of tumors and the mechanisms through which the antioxidant barrier acts. Such studies could also serve to investigate the prognostic value of d-ROMs and BAP and their role in monitoring antitumor treatment strategies, whether or not associated with a possible therapeutic role of diet-supplemented antioxidants.The second part of this document is aimed at investigating the stressful impact that the diagnosis of cancer on a dog can have on its owner, through the use of the IES-R (Impact of Event Scale - Revised). The IES-R is not a diagnostic tool, but is used as an indicator of a probable PTSD and is used on different occasions due to its versatility. In the present study, the diagnosis of cancer on the dog, communicated to the owner, is considered a stressful event. The people who completed the questionnaire were 21, 12 women and 9 men, with an average age of 47 years. An IES-R score above 33 indicates a probable post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and the mean score of the people who filled out the questionnaire was 42.7. Sixty-seven percent of people had a score above 33, with an average of 67. People under the age of 50 had a higher score than people over the age of 50. Women experienced more avoidance symptoms than men. Based on these results, it is possible to suspect probable PTSD in most people who have received the news of the disease in their pet and this reinforces the hypothesis that a pet is considered in all respects a member of the family. Such findings can be of interest to mental health professionals, but also to veterinarians who have to deliver bad news to the client. To the author's knowledge, there are currently no similar studies in veterinary medicine, therefore it might be useful to expand the number of people who fill out the questionnaire in order to study the many variables that can affect the assessment of people's mental state and their adaptivity after receiving bad news from their veterinarian.