From:
sukiec@optonline.net
Date: 2004-01-18 02:43:33 UTC
Subject: RE: insulinoma
To: ferrethealth@smartgroups.com
Message-ID: <2542888.1074393813361.JavaMail.root@indium.smartgroups.com>
I don't think that I explained well part of what i was saying.
There is a hypothesis that limiting sugar intake will prevent blood glucose levels from yo-yoing. It's known that at advanced stages that isn't so because by then the tumor cells have taken over a lot of the normal tissue and those tumor cells are not responsive to blood glucose levels; they just pump out insulin no matter what.
The questions are to what degree any yo-yoing may happen earlier, what causes some individuals to do that and which ones don't do it, and to what degree that affects the time of survival.
My recollection is that Mike has had marvlous success with some of of his medically treated ones, and he's someone who knows his stuff. Remember: It never hurts to find out just how long any procedure has worked and how much that success has varied among individual ferrets. Then things can be tried and the best approach for your own individual can be found.
Have you looked at the paper by Doctors Bruce Williams and Charles Weiss which compare survival times for insulinoma cases (something like 65 of them) which were caught early and how they compare? Partial pancreatomy worked best, followed by tumor removal, followed by medication.