Pet cancer radiation treatment comes to Sydney animal hospital

A SYDNEY animal hospital has invested $5 million in the state’s first dedicated radiation oncology facility for pets.

Penny poses for photographs with the linear accelerator at the Small Animal Specialist Hospital in North Ryde.

CANCER treatments have gone to the dogs — literally.

North Ryde’s The Small Animal Specialist Hospital has invested $5 million in the state’s first dedicated radiation oncology facility for pets.

The system uses the same technology used for humans and the hospital’s head of medicine, Dr Sandra Nguyen, said it will change how vets treat cancer in animals.

“This is such an important part of integrating cancer therapy,” she said.

“We had a strong oncology service already (but) we didn’t have radiation facilities ... We’ve treated four animals since Monday and they are all doing well.”

The country’s only other pet radiation facility is in Brisbane and Dr Nguyen said many owners couldn’t send their pets away for treatment.

She said that during her training in the US, she treated mostly dogs but had also radiated animals including snakes and rabbits.

Dr Nguyen said such treatments would become more important, with dogs living longer and more than 50 per cent of our canine friends set to be diagnosed with cancer.

Originally published as Pet cancer radiation treatment comes to Sydney animal hospital