Oncology is the field of veterinary medicine focused on the diagnosis and treatment of cancer in animals. It involves understanding tumor behavior, staging, diagnostics, treatment options, pain management, and quality of life.
Before studying oncology deeper, I used to think cancer cases were only about chemotherapy or poor prognosis. But the more I learned, the more I realized oncology is also about communication, decision-making, and helping both patients and owners navigate difficult situations with compassion.
One of the biggest lessons in oncology is that treatment is not always about curing. Sometimes it is about giving patients more comfortable days, preserving dignity, and improving quality of life for as long as possible.
Entering this course made me appreciate how complex and emotional cancer medicine can be, not only scientifically, but also personally for every family involved.
Honestly, I never expected oncology to become such an interesting field for me. But wait… why was I even there in the first place? Because of radiology hahaha.
During my radiology training, I encountered so many diseases and terms I had never even heard of before. It felt like there was this huge missing puzzle piece I needed to understand better, and somehow that led me into oncology. I also kept hearing the term “mass effect” almost every single day during radiology lectures hahaha. At first, I honestly didn’t fully understand it, but eventually I realized how imaging teaches you to notice the subtle things, organ displacement, abnormal shapes, tiny changes you would normally ignore. Sometimes the lesion itself is not even obvious, but the body already tells you something is wrong through the surrounding structures.
One thing I used to hate was doing FNAs because at first, I genuinely had no idea what I was even looking at. Everything looked confusing to me. But little by little, I started learning how to categorize things better and connect patterns in my head. It’s still challenging, but it doesn’t feel as impossible anymore compared to before.
Oncology is fascinating, but at the same time, it can also feel depressing because there’s never really a guaranteed outcome, only hope and the possibility of giving patients more time and a better quality of life.
There are certain diseases that really made me want to dive deeper into the field, especially lymphoma, hemangiosarcoma, and mast cell tumors. The difficult part in our country though is that we still have limited chemotherapeutic drugs available, which can make management challenging.
But honestly, it’s also very fulfilling when you diagnose your patient more accurately than before. I remember sharing what I learned with one of my colleagues, and we honestly couldn’t move on from how beautifully he was able to capture lymphoma in the slides. It was such a satisfying feeling seeing things slowly make sense after struggling to understand them before.
What makes oncology interesting to me is how involved you become from start to finish. You don’t just diagnose and leave. You follow the patient’s journey, the treatment, the progress, the setbacks, and even the emotional side of the owners themselves.
But will I dive deeper into oncology? Hmm… for now, I think I’m still diving deepest into art as my priority specialty hahaha. But oncology? Let’s see. I think it requires a huge emotional capacity too, and I’m not yet sure if my heart can fully handle that side of medicine
Cancer cells are strangely beautiful in their own way.
The more I learned how to interpret cytology slides, the more fascinated I became with the patterns, shapes, and tiny details hidden under the microscope. It honestly takes so much time, patience, and dedication to train your eyes to recognize them.
I ended up making a pin inspired by them so I wouldn’t forget this experience.
