Papaya leaf extract for cancer?

Dr. Marie replied:

Oh, I am sorry to hear about Jacob and his spleen. Some spleen tumors can be benign but when we see one that is cancerous then even with chemo dogs don't tend to live very long.

Piroxicam is an anti-inflammatory drug. We do know that it has some sort of effect against some types of tumors such as the bladder tumor called transitional cell carcinoma. While Piroxicam is not a chemotherapy, it does help somewhat to help slow down the progression of some cancers.

I spent a fair amount of time researching papaya leaf extract for you. I have to tell you that it is not something that I have heard of being used in veterinary medicine. There is almost nothing in the veterinary references that I go to about using papaya leaf extract for cancer. I did a thorough search on Veterinary Information Network (VIN) to see if any of the herbal/homeopathic vets were talking about it and none were. Usually if there is a supplement that is going to be helpful then these vets will be using it.

I did also, however, do some research in some human medical journals and found this article that showed that papaya leaf extract *may* have some anti-cancer effect. I wouldn't expect it to be a miracle cure, however.

It is very unlikely that the papaya leaf extract will cause any problems for Jacob. It won't interfere with the Piroxicam. I would go ahead and give it a try.

I hope Jacob feels ok for as long as posisble.

Dr. Marie.

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