Veterinary Highlights: Stereotactic RadioSurgery For Dogs With Osteosarcoma

RadioSurgery is used instead of surgery, when traditional surgery with a scalpel blade is impossible or would cause unacceptable side effects to the patient (for example, in the brain or nasal tumors), or when surgery is refused (for example, an amputation for bone osteosarcoma).

Stereotactic RadioSurgery (SRS), can be used as a limb-sparing technique.

While palliative radiation is mostly focused on pain relief, this technique delivers high doses of radiation directly to the bone tumor cells with extreme precision.

It follows the contours of the tumor with millimeter to sub-millimeter accuracy.

A higher dose of radiation can be delivered to the tumor while sparing surrounding tissue. It also allows for fewer treatments. For bone tumors, dogs receive 3 treatments in total.

Dogs treated with SRS and chemotherapy to control metastasis had a survival time of about one year, similar to dogs treated with amputation and chemotherapy.

Dogs with a bone close to fracturing, particularly with a lot of bone already destroyed, are not good candidates for this procedure.

Source article:
Osteosarcoma: When Amputation Is Not an option, part 2

Categories: Bone tumors • Brain tumors • Cancer • Conditions • CyberKnife • Nasal cancer • Osteosarcoma • Stereotactic RadioSurgery

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Jana Rade

I am a graphic designer, dog health advocate, writer, and author. Jasmine, the Rottweiler of my life, was the largest female from her litter. We thought we were getting a healthy dog. Getting a puppy from a backyard breeder was our first mistake. Countless veterinary visits without a diagnosis or useful treatment later, I realized that I had to take Jasmine's health care in my own hands. I learned the hard way that merely seeing a vet is not always enough. There is more to finding a good vet than finding the closest clinic down the street. And, sadly, there is more to advocating for your dog's health than visiting a veterinarian. It should be enough, but it often is not. With Jasmine, it took five years to get a diagnosis. Unfortunately, other problems had snowballed for that in the meantime. Jasmine's health challenges became a crash course in understanding dog health issues and how to go about getting a proper diagnosis and treatment. I had to learn, and I had to learn fast. Helping others through my challenges and experience has become my mission and Jasmine's legacy. I now try to help people how to recognize and understand signs of illness in their dogs, how to work with their veterinarian, and when to seek a second opinion. My goal is to save others the steep curve of having to learn things the hard way as I did. That is the mission behind my blog and behind my writing. That is why I wrote Symptoms to Watch for in Your Dog, which has turned out being an award-winning guide to dog owners. What I'm trying to share encompasses 20 years of experience.

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