Patient Services Coordinator Dave Meyer demonstrates the portability of the new Intrabeam Radiotherapy System.
Thanks to a $500,000 donation from the Stearns Family Foundation, The OSU Veterinary Teaching Hospital is now the only veterinary college in the world with an Intrabeam Radiotherapy System. The system is a mobile, miniaturized linear accelerator that provides a precise radiation dose to a tumor cavity during tumor surgery. This minimizes exposure to healthy tissue while targeting the tissue where cancer is most likely to reoccur.
With the Intrabeam system, once a tumor is removed, but before the surgeon closes the incision, the Intrabeam applicator is positioned in the tumor bed and the tissue is radiated by accelerating electrons through a tube onto a gold target where low-energy x-rays are generated and emitted evenly in all directions. The surgeon then closes the incision.
Krystina Tack, a Medical Physicist in the OSU Department of Nuclear Engineering and Radiation Health Physics, consulted with CVM veterinary oncologist Dr. Shay Bracha to select the first Intrabeam case, a cat whose tumor was removed in April. Tack will be consulting on all future cases to determine appropriate dosage and safety protocols.
The Intrabeam has been used primarly in humans with breast cancer and is new to veterinary medicine. “The approach is the same,” says Tack, “but the doses are different. We will be able to learn a lot from these animal models because animals respond more quickly. You can evaluate the efficacy after only one year where in humans a person is considered cured after five years.”
The Stearns Family Foundation is a non-profit organization founded by Stan and Judy Stearns, longtime supporters of the college. The Stearns also donated the small animal MRI unit at the OSU Veterinary Teaching Hospital.
