One year later.

It has been a year since Pika was claimed by feline restrictive myofibroblastic sarcoma.  I have been doing periodic literature searches on PubMed and other sites I have access to through work, but the condition is very rare and any new articles I've found are focused on the histopathology of the condition rather than treatments.  There was one recent article about pancreatic cancer that peaked my interest, the study looked at the anti-cancer properties of bitter melon.  Bitter melon is commonly used in the cuisine of many Asian cultures, beside being used as a culinary ingredient it is used in traditional medicine as a treatment for diabetes.  It is thought that some compound or combination of compounds found in biter melon helps regulate glucose metabolism at a cellular level, which is why it is thought to be effective for diabetes.  This same mechanism has been found to be effective against cancer cells, whose uncontrolled growth consumes a lot of glucose.  By reducing the level of glucose metabolism in cancer cells the bitter melon causes the cancerous cells to starve and eventually die, normal cells do not need to metabolize as much glucose to operate and are not affected.  A synopsis of the study can be found here.  It would be interesting to see if bitter melon could be used to stop a myofibroblastic sarcoma from spreading and even killing the defective cells.  That along with serapeptase to digest the excess scar tissue laid down by the myofibroblastic sarcoma might have some value in prolonging the life of or improving the quality of life for an animal patient.  Biter melon can be found at many asian markets and an extract is available in capsule form at places like The Vitamin Shoppe.