About NC State Veterinary Hospital

At NC State Veterinary Hospital our mission is to provide animals and their owners with extraordinary, compassionate medical care.

Ranked as one of the best veterinary medicine complexes in the nation, we are dedicated to providing leadership in veterinary care, biomedical discovery, and societal engagement that addresses complex global issues facing animal, human, and environmental health.

Things You Should Know When Choosing Treatment:

• Your veterinary radiation oncologist should discuss all of the appropriate medical treatments related to your pet’s condition. Be concerned if your doctor refuses to talk about other treatment options.
• Question advertised treatments that are not backed by scientific evidence.
• You can always seek a second opinion. No doctor should discourage you from getting one.

We are the only veterinary teaching hospital in North Carolina, and an integrated health care center for companion, equine, and farm animals. Our expert medical team sees over 30,000 patients a year, from all over the world.

About Stereotactic Radiation Therapy (SRT)

Conventional radiation therapy is typically given over the course of several weeks, breaking the total dose up into sessions so that the noncancerous tissues and organs surrounding the cancerous tumor have time to heal.

Stereotactic Radiation Therapy (SRT) is different in that rather than using time to protect the normal tissues near the cancerous tumor, it protects them during treatment. SRT uses focused radiation beams, detailed imaging, computerized treatment planning, and precise treatment set-up to deliver the radiation with extreme accuracy (or, stereotactically). SRT delivers intense radiation therapy in 1 to 5 high-dose treatment sessions.

Conditions Commonly Treated with SRT

• Oral tumors
• Nasal cancer – Bone tumors – Spinal tumors
• Heart-base tumors
• Brain tumors (such meningioma, glioma, canine pituitary tumors and feline acromegaly)

We are beginning to see SRT used more and more on other types of cancer as well, such as; lung tumors, liver tumors, adrenal gland tumors, and metatastic cancer.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Is SRT the best treatment option for my pet?
A: SRT is very successful at treating a variety of bulky tumors. Unfortunately, it cannot be used to target microscopic cancerous cells left behind after surgical treatment.

Q: I’ve heard of Stereotactic RadioSurgery (SRS), is that the same thing?
A: Stereotactic Radiation Therapy has somewhat of a name problem, as there are several acronyms used to describe it. Stereotactic RadioSurgery generally refers to a single or several stereotactic radiation treatments of the brain or spine. Stereotactic Body Radiation Therapy (SBRT) is also used, which refers to one or several treatments within the body excluding the brain or spine. Stereotactic Ablative Radiotherapy (SABR) is another name that refers to stereotactic radiation therapy, but does not tell you where in the body treatment is happening.

Q. Do you have CyberKnife, GammaKnife, or TrueBeam treatments?
A: These are actually all just brand names. Our particular machine is called a Varian Novalis TX. Each piece of equipment is engineered differently, but they all do the same thing – that is, they are all optimized to deliver high quality SRT.

Choosing The Best Treatment For Your Pet

Your veterinary radiation oncologist will be able to help you decide whether radiation therapy can play a role in your pet’s treatment plan, what the goal of the therapy should be, and which type of radiation therapy would be the best fit for those goals.

A few things to consider:

• Is there reliable medical evidence supporting the treatment being offered? Sometimes this is tough to find for newer treatments, but it’s always worth asking.
• What are the side effects?
• What is the cost?
• How far must you travel for treatments?
• Have you had the opportunity to ask questions, and do you feel comfortable with your radiation oncologist?