PITTSBURGH VETERINARY SPECIALTY & EMERGENCY CENTER GAME-CHANGING NEW CANCER TREATMENT NOW AVAILABLE TO PETS IN WESTERN PENNSYLVANIA
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PITTSBURGH VETERINARY SPECIALTY & EMERGENCY CENTER GAME-CHANGING NEW CANCER TREATMENT NOW AVAILABLE TO PETS IN WESTERN PENNSYLVANIA
Stereotactic Radiosurgery ( SRS ) is a noninvasive therapy intended to improve both long-term survival and quality of life for pets with cancer .
Cancer . Just hearing the word is enough to make you cringe .
Most of us have been touched by the insidious disease in some form or fashion . Whether it has afflicted you personally or somebody you love , we hear the C-word far too often .
Fortunately , we also live in an age of amazing technology and progress . Doctors can do things today that were unheard of a decade ago . Clinical researchers are hard at work in search of a cure , determined to tip the scales in the fight against cancer . While we ’ re not there quite yet , advances in medicine continue to evolve at a rapid pace . A cancer diagnosis is not necessarily the death sentence it used to be .
Now , thanks to a new progressive treatment called stereotactic radiosurgery ( SRS ), that is true not only for people but for pets too .
Veterinarians and pet owners alike are beginning to hear about SRS . While SRS has emerged as an integral part of human oncology over the last few decades , it has just become available to animals in the last few years . And just recently , the new treatment option – and the technology to provide it – was introduced to Western Pennsylvania for the first time . That means that local pet owners are among only a handful across the country who have access to cancer care for pets in line with what is already available to people .
An advanced form of radiation therapy , SRS represents a game-changing option for many cancer patients with tumors . The benefits over previous forms of radiation therapy are both significant and numerous .
Conventional radiation therapy typically requires 18-30 treatment sessions and targets an area of the body where a tumor is known to exist . In contrast , thanks to unprecedented technology and precision , SRS requires only 1-3 treatment sessions and delivers high-dose radiation directly to the tumor , targeting the deadly mass while mostly – or even completely – sparing the surrounding healthy tissue .
Many tumors previously considered untreatable can now be targeted through SRS – noninvasively , with no incisions or sutures . Tumors in sensitive locations such as the brain , spinal column , lungs
and prostate are too dangerous for conventional radiation therapy because of the risk to the healthy anatomy surrounding the tumor . The sub-millimeter precision of SRS , on the other hand , is capable of delivering high-dose radiation directly to the tumor without damaging those critical structures .
Instead of weeks of veterinary appointments and radiation treatments , SRS patients receive their entire treatment course in 1-3 days . Including an initial CT scan required for treatment planning , patients undergo no more than four anesthetic events – 80-95 % less than conventional radiation therapy . And because healthy tissue is mostly spared , the nasty side effects commonly associated with radiation are rare .
While every case is different , most patients experience immediate improvement to their quality of life and resume normal activity upon completion of treatment .
Ali , an 11-year-old poodle , had to be wheeled in for treatment because of a spinal tumor that was causing paralysis to his hind legs . Three days later , he walked out of the hospital independently . Baci , a 13-year-old dog from New Jersey , was in a comatose state before undergoing treatment for a brain tumor . Within four months of SRS , he was back to winning medals at obedience competitions .
It may not be common knowledge that the incidence of cancer in pets is similar to that in humans . Statistics tell us that approximately 12 million dogs and cats will be diagnosed with cancer this year . Many of their owners , devastated by the news , will be told there is nothing they can do .
Thanks to SRS , that message is changing .
This article was provided by PetCure Oncology at PVSEC ( 412.366.3400 ; 807 Camp Horne Road ), the only provider of SRS for pets within a four-hour drive of Pittsburgh . SRS is now in Western Pennsylvania through a partnership between national cancer care provider PetCure Oncology and local veterinary specialty center PVSEC .
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