Iowa State expanding pet cancer care as demand booms

AMES — As more people own pets and seek care for them, the demand for advanced medical treatments is spiking — including for cancer care, like the novel and expanding veterinary oncology services offered at Iowa State University.

“We are truly the only facility (in Iowa) that has boarded oncologists that are treating patients with pet cancer,” said Marc Kinsley, executive director of hospital operations for the ISU Lloyd Veterinary Medical Center. “And what we're trying to do is expand that.”

With a long-held vision to create a “Pet Cancer Clinic,” ISU six years ago went to the Board of Regents seeking permission to develop a 1,320-square-foot stereotactic radiation therapy addition to the Veterinary Medical Center’s Hixon-Lied Small Animal Hospital, which was built in 2006.

That $3.7 million project in 2017 incorporated advanced oncology technology and a recovery area near “a future comparative oncology center.”

Fast forward to last month, and ISU returned to the regents with a phase-two request to renovate more than 3,600 square feet and build a 2,000-square-foot addition in its debut of the “ISU Pet Cancer Clinic.”

“Establishing an ISU Pet Cancer Clinic would provide comprehensive treatment capabilities and facilitate the collaboration of oncologists with specialists in veterinary pathology, internal medicine, cardiology, and ophthalmology,” according to the ISU request, which won unanimous board approval.

The project, costing between $6.3 and $6.8 million and sitting adjacent the 2017 radiation therapy addition, also would help ISU “grow net fee-for-service revenue, better position the college to compete for funding, and efficiently execute clinical research trials.”

“This project would enhance the Hixon-Lied Small Animal Hospital’s capacity to address Iowa’s pet population’s much-needed and growing care needs,” the proposal stated.

Had the clinic’s expanded services been available six years ago when Rachel Hadaway's 13-year-old cat, Trinity, was diagnosed with cancer, the dedicated Des Moines pet mom would have used them.

“Take them up to Ames and see what they can do for you, what options they can give me,” Hadaway, 43, said. “Absolutely.”

She opted for surgery instead for Trinity.

Pet ownership booming

The growth in demand for pet cancer care, in part, can be tied to a swell in pet ownership that began before the COVID-19 pandemic but then accelerated, according to an American Pet Products Association 2023-2024 pet owners’ survey and the American Veterinary Medical Association’s most recent pet ownership and demographics sourcebook.

“There was a big increase in adoptions from shelters during the pandemic when everybody was working from home,” Kinsley said of ISU’s spike in activity. “That translated to a huge amount of cases for all veterinarians, sometimes beyond capacity.”

Where 66 percent of American households today have a pet — equal to nearly 87 million homes — 62 percent did in 2022 and 56 percent did in 1988. Industry experts predict growth will continue, reaching 92 million pet-owning American households next year and 95 million by 2028, according to the American Pet Products Association.

Growth in two-pet households, in part, is behind the increase — thanks, in large part, to millennials. Those in the 27- to 42-age range have seen their multi-pet ownership rates increase from 67 percent in 2018 to 73 percent in 2022.

Dogs are the most popular American pet, in 65 million American households, followed by cats in 46.5 million households.

Although only about 4 percent of dogs and 1 percent of cats are insured, the pet insurance industry is booming along with the rise in pet ownership — with a pet owner facing a vet bill topping $1,000 every six seconds in the United States, according to Forbes.

Dogs make up most of the nation’s 5.36 million insured pets at 80 percent, according to Forbes.

“The pet insurance market size was valued at $8.6 billion in 2022 and is projected to be valued at $16 billion by 2032,” according to Forbes, reporting, “The total number of insured pets has seen double-digit increases in the last four years, with an average growth rate of 26.6 percent since 2018.”

Although not all pet insurance plans cover cancer care, some do — if the cancer develops after the plan is purchased. Average monthly insurance rates are $44 for dogs and $30 for cats for a policy with a $250 deductible and 80 percent coverage, Forbes reported, with Iowa reporting among the lowest average pet premiums in the nation at $22 a month.

'That’s way up’

For pet oncology care at ISU — which serves sick animals not just from Iowa but other states like Nebraska, Illinois, Missouri and even California — costs vary widely by treatment protocol, with some on the low end at $4,000 and other bills reaching more than $20,000, according to Margaret Musser, associate professor of oncology.

“It entirely depends on the treatment plan elected by the owner, the chemotherapy protocol … the size of the dog, if the owner has insurance, etc.,” Musser said. “Radiation therapy cost also depends on the tumor type and treatment goals of the owner.”

ISU was just starting to provide pet cancer care in 2016, responding to growing demand with its regents request to expand services and technology.

“At that time, there was no radiation facility in Iowa and so we were going to be the first,” Musser said, noting that although radiation had been used to treat pets with cancer in other states at that time, “the type of radiation our machine allows us to do is more advanced.”

Today, ISU remains the only clinic in Iowa offering pet oncology services.

“Any of the -ologies that you would see in human medicine we pretty much provide,” said Executive Director Kinsley. “Radiation oncology, medical oncology, we do soft-tissue surgery, orthopedic surgery, emergency and critical care, dermatology, cardiology, internal medicine. … We have large animal surgery, large animal internal medicine, radiology, anesthesiology, radiology, rehabilitation.”

The ISU animal hospital — inclusive of all care for all animals from horses, cattle and sheep to dogs, cats and exotics — averages 25,000 total cases a year, with 26,173 in the 2023 budget year, 25,792 in 2022 and 25,611 in 2021.

“That’s way up from 2020 and 2019,” Kinsley said. “We were in the 22,000 range in those years. So we've grown considerably in the past three years with the pandemic and everything associated with it.”

As far as oncology care, he said, ISU treated 1,812 pet patients in the 2023 budget year; 1,593 in 2022; and 1,132 in 2021. The recently-approved expansion of the ISU Pet Cancer Clinic will build out shelled space in the hospital — not only increasing capacity for more services and patients, but improving the continuity of care.

“This will allow us to expand in scope — as far as the number of patients that could be seen,” Kinsley said. “It also allows for greater teaching abilities.”

In addition to 58 providers within the overall hospital, ISU has about 50 residents.

“They're learning and training to become the next set of medical and radiation oncologists,” he said.

'Translational opportunities’

With ISU’s tri-part mission of service, teaching and research in mind, ISU College of Veterinary Medicine Dean Dan Grooms told The Gazette this clinic expansion will further cancer inquiry — including in humans.

“This facility will not only allow us to continue to provide outstanding care to patients with cancer and potentially expand those services, but it also will really enhance our teaching enterprise as well as our research enterprise,” Grooms said. “Dr. Musser and her team are really interested in looking at new modalities or new opportunities to treat cancer differently. This will just further enhance all three of our missions.”

Like in human cancer care and research, ISU is offering clinical trials for specific types of tumors — working with the University of Iowa’s College of Medicine regarding “translational opportunities from humans to (animals).”

“Dr. Musser might investigate a drug or protocol that might eventually translate into human medicine,” said David Wong, chair of ISU’s Department of Veterinary Clinical Sciences. “Sometimes that does occur in the animal species to kind of help advance medicine in general.”

Because quality of life is paramount for pets, ISU providers do sometimes discuss euthanasia with clients. And, Musser said, they use different dosing protocols.

Hadaway, of Des Moines, said that when her Trinity was diagnosed with cancer in 2017, she pursued treatment through surgery, not oncology.

“The type of cancer that she had had caused a big tumor in her lymph node in her ankle,” Hadaway said. “They had recommended amputation — that was the course of treatment.”

She opted to move forward because she had heard positive stories about quality of life for three-legged pets. Although Trinity recovered well from the surgery, doctors determined the cancer had spread — leaving her with few options at that time.

“At that point, it really was just, ‘Let's try to make her comfortable’,” Hadaway said, reporting Trinity passed a short time later.

With a new cat, Reggie, now under her care and thriving, Hadaway said she’s glad to have more pet-care options at her disposal.

“Being so close to Ames and what a resource it is for Central Iowa to have Iowa State so close … I think if you're an Iowan, you have these institutions that are in your own neighborhood, it makes sense to be a part of that and use the services that they have.”

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