6 Jan 2025
Hospital director at Bristol Vet Specialists says high-tech treatments are offering better quality of life for patients and making more tumours treatable, the hospital’s clinical director said.
Allister Webb
Job Title
Owen Davies of Bristol Vet Specialists.
A veterinary hospital in south-west England has celebrated a milestone in cancer care which clinicians say is offering significant benefits to both patients and their owners.
One hundred patients have now been treated using an Elekta Infinity linear accelerator at Bristol Vet Specialists.
The machine, which is worth £1.7 million and thought to be the only one of its kind for pets in England, enables image-guided radiation techniques to be used for the treatment of both cats and dogs.
Officials say that means patients can have fewer, shorter, treatment sessions, reducing side effects and offering the prospect of better clinical outcomes.
Clinical director Delphine Holopherne-Doran said the technology had enabled them to take care “to the next level”.
She continued: “The advantage of these treatments is that high dose rates of focused beams are delivered with high precision over a shortened treatment course, with greater safety for the patient’s healthy tissue.
“It has now drawn many tumours into the realm of treatability, it is improving the quality of life for patients, and it is making it easier for owners to manage their pet’s treatment and after care.”
Hospital officials estimate the Avonmouth site has welcomed around 3,000 patients, and carried out more than 4,500 separate procedures, since it opened in the autumn of 2023 following a £13.5 million construction project.
