CVS Group is installing a state-of-the-art linear accelerator at Bristol Vet Specialists, where it will allow the referral hospital to offer advanced image-guided radiation treatments for cancer in cats and dogs.

The company says the Elekta Infinity linear accelerator is the only one of its kind for pets in England.

It features a multi-leaf collimator for very accurate shaping of the radiation beam and a six-degrees-of-freedom couch top designed so the patient can be positioned to reduce or eliminate radiation doses to critical organs.

CVS says the new machine will allow the centre to offer cutting edge treatments such as stereotactic radiation therapy, where high dose rates of focused beams are delivered with high precision over a shortened treatment course.

This, the company claims, will mean fewer, shorter sessions, fewer side effects and the best possible chance of improved outcomes for the animal. 

Delphine Holopherne-Doran, Clinical Director at Bristol Vet Specialists, said: “Our new hospital will be at the forefront of cancer care in animals.

“The linear accelerator is state of the art, and allows us to offer advanced, image-guided radiation treatments - for example intensity-modulated or stereotactic radiation therapy.

"The advantage to these treatments is that they will allow a more “hard-hitting” treatment of the tumour, with greater safety for the patient’s healthy tissue.

"It will draw many tumours into the realm of treatability.”

Based at Central Park, Avonmouth, Bristol Vet Specialists referral hospital is due for completion this Autumn. 

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