Treatment benefits of CT images
DURING the past week, I have been fortunate enough to have attended the Southern European Veterinary Congress in Barcelona.
The congress was a truly international event with delegates from across the world. Some lectures were presented in Spanish and some in English with simultaneous translations available via wireless headsets.
During the three-day congress, I attended 18 lectures on a whole variety of different topics but the lectures I found most interesting and thought-provoking were presented by Nick Bacon of Fitzpatrick Oncology. Famous as the TV “Super-Vet”, Noel Fitzpatrick set up the Oncology Hospital in Guildford a couple of years ago and Nick Bacon heads up the team there.
Nick presented a series of lectures on surgery for treating cancer patients and, as an expert in the field, he was presenting some of the new techniques and developments that he is pioneering.
Amongst the most interesting for me was the use of CT imaging to improve the outcomes when treating liver tumours.
Before CT became available, it was always very challenging to establish the extent of a tumour within the liver. The vet would have to guess how far the tumour extended beyond the area that looked abnormal and it was only several days after the surgery when a lab had reviewed the tissue that had been removed that we could tell whether all of the cancer had been dealt with.
Using CT, it is now possible to assess the tumour much more accurately and plan the surgery before taking the pet into theatre.
When a liver is affected by cancer, the normal position of the blood vessels within the liver can be altered. If part of the liver is to be removed during surgery, there is a danger that the blood supply to parts of the liver that are to be left could be damaged.
I found this new application for CT fascinating…..not least because we now have the ability to perform CT scans at the Maple Street Hospital at Aspley so this is something that we can now do for our own patients.
The combination of being able to assess the extent of the cancer in the liver and also ensure that vital structures are avoided is thought to significantly improve the outcome and, while these cases can still be challenging, many cases that used to be considered untreatable can now be managed successfully.