The aging of pets will bring about an increase in the incidence of pet tumors and the demand for diagnosis and treatment. Like human medicine, the cost of tumor treatment is not cheap, especially when new drugs are used.

It is an effective way to solve this problem to apply traditional therapeutic drugs to the treatment of pet tumors, such as the use of losartan and propranolol.

Losartan: Traditional antihypertensive drug, but this angiotensin receptor blocker also has the immunomodulatory effect involving monocytes and macrophages, and can inhibit the aggregation of monocytes in tumors.

In general, there are a large number of macrophages and monocytes in the tumor microenvironment (TME), which makes them a good therapeutic target. By targeting these cells, the immunosuppressive effect of TME can be changed to better respond to the immune system.

A recent study evaluating the combined treatment of losartan and tosenib in dogs with lung metastasis of osteosarcoma showed that the clinical effective rate of high-dose losartan and tosenib was 50%, and the survival period of the combined treatment was longer than that of tosenib. This combination of drugs is a unique treatment option for dogs with advanced osteosarcoma. At the same time, the effect of the combination of losartan and sunitinib is also being evaluated.

Propranolol: β- Adrenergic blockers, which help regulate the heart rhythm, have been used in the past as antihypertensive drugs (although they have been replaced by newer antihypertensive drugs). The drug has also been shown to reduce bone marrow derived suppressor cells in tumor tissue.

Propranolol acts as an immune modulator by acting on immunosuppressive cells called myelogenous suppressor cells (MDSCs). A study at Colorado State University's Flint Animal Cancer Center combined losartan and propranolol with a canine tumor cell lysate vaccine to treat glioma. The study found that the overall clinical effective rate was 80%, and it was clinically well tolerated.

Losartan and propranolol are relatively inexpensive drugs and can be purchased from most human pharmacies. Pet owners can use these drugs to treat their pets at home (kidney and heart functions need to be monitored regularly).

Rachel Venable: Medical oncologist certified by the American College of Veterinary Medicine. He received a veterinary degree from the University of Missouri in Colombia, graduated with honors, and continued to receive the training of small animal interns at the University of Georgia in Athens. Then he completed a three-year residency in the Department of Oncology at the Flint Animal Cancer Center of Colorado State University in Fort Collins, where he obtained a master's degree and studied new cancer therapies and clinical trials.