Client counseling for cancer: considerations for making a professional and skillful presentation of treatment options, risks, and therapeutic goals.

Each veterinary oncology patient is different, yet the verbal presentation of therapeutic options to the owner contains many similar concepts. Helping a client choose a treatment option and adjust to that therapy is an exchange process between the veterinarian and the client in which each party is responsible for certain duties. To review the principles presented in this article, a list of responsibilities for each participant, essential to facilitate a decision about cancer therapy for the pet, is presented in Table 1.