Ziegerhofer Christina, Tichy Alexander, Kleiter Miriam, Wolfesberger Birgitt, Palme Rupert
Department for Small Animals and Horses, University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna, Veterinaerplatz 1, 1210 Vienna, Austria.
Platform for Bioinformatics and Biostatistics, Department of Biological Sciences and Pathobiology, University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna, Veterinaerplatz 1, 1210 Vienna, Austria.
Animals (Basel). 2025 Jun 19;15(12):1809. doi: 10.3390/ani15121809.
Stress reactions play an important role in animals' ability to cope with various situations. Glucocorticoids are measured as a stress parameter, and analysis of their faecal metabolites has proven to be a good method for evaluating long term stress. We hypothesised that dogs suffering from cancer would have a higher stress level during cancer therapy, which would be reflected in higher levels of faecal cortisol metabolites (FCMs). Faeces were collected from 40 dogs receiving radiation or chemotherapy before and during the treatment, and from 53 healthy dogs, who served as a control group. FCMs were extracted and quantified by a cortisol enzyme immunoassay. The results showed that the stress levels were not significantly higher in the cancer patients before therapy compared to those in the control group. Additionally, there were no significant differences in the FCM concentrations of dogs at specific time points during chemotherapy or radiotherapy. Therefore, suspected stress should not be a criterion to exclude animals from cancer treatment. Such a treatment seems ethically justifiable if it is expected to provide benefits and improvement in the quality of life for patients.
应激反应在动物应对各种情况的能力中起着重要作用。糖皮质激素作为一种应激参数进行测量，对其粪便代谢物的分析已被证明是评估长期应激的一种好方法。我们假设患癌症的狗在癌症治疗期间应激水平会更高，这将通过粪便皮质醇代谢物（FCMs）水平升高得到体现。在治疗前和治疗期间，从40只接受放疗或化疗的狗以及53只作为对照组的健康狗身上采集粪便。通过皮质醇酶免疫测定法提取并定量FCMs。结果显示，与对照组相比，癌症患者治疗前的应激水平并没有显著更高。此外，在化疗或放疗的特定时间点，狗的FCM浓度没有显著差异。因此，疑似应激不应作为将动物排除在癌症治疗之外的标准。如果预期这种治疗能为患者带来益处并改善生活质量，那么这种治疗在伦理上似乎是合理的。
