Varian Literally Going to the Dogs

[scarbrtj]

PetCure Oncology Selects Varian Halcyon Treatment System to Expand Access to Cancer Care for Pets

Woof!

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[Palex80]

Well, thinking about it, they do have a point choosing this machine.

It's quite fast in acquiring a CBCT and treating the patient / animal, probably making it easier to perform this under a shorter lasting sedation.
The maximum treatable volume which some may view as a major setback with Halcyon is not much of an issue, since pets are generally smaller than human patients.

Other than that, animal radiation oncology has always intrigued me a bit. I had an interesting chat with some vets during a common radiation protection course a few years back. They explained to me all sorts of different things about animal radiation oncology.
Apparently higher fraction sizes are quite common in animal radiation oncology, sarcomas are the main focus (often in the head and neck area) and animals don't actually lose their fur always when irradiated. It changes color however.

 

[scarbrtj]

Radiating animals led to one of my favorite pics of all time, not to mention one of the underpinnings of modern XRT of course

 

[smq123]

Radiating animals led to one of my favorite pics of all time, not to mention one of the underpinnings of modern XRT of course

I'm guessing you're not an LSU fan?

Terminally ill LSU mascot tiger receives stereotactic radiation for sarcoma

 

[evilbooyaa]

Relevant: LSU’s Tiger Mascot Undergoes Stereotactic Radiotherapy

*EDIT* - Damnit, Ninja'd.

Now I can't even delete it. SDN moves too quickly for me.

 

[smq123]

Relevant: LSU’s Tiger Mascot Undergoes Stereotactic Radiotherapy

*EDIT* - Damnit, Ninja'd.

Now I can't even delete it. SDN moves too quickly for me.

Why would you want to delete it? A story like that deserves to be mentioned twice!

The pictures of his treatment are actually kind of interesting: Inside look at Mike the Tiger's cancer treatment: Mascot showing huge improvement but prognosis still grim

[SPOILER ALERT: the tiger died.]

 

[evilbooyaa]

Why would you want to delete it? A story like that deserves to be mentioned twice!

The pictures of his treatment are actually kind of interesting: Inside look at Mike the Tiger's cancer treatment: Mascot showing huge improvement but prognosis still grim

Well if you SBRT'd a human's spindle cell sarcoma of the orbit/face and didn't do any radical surgery, it'd probably still kill them too at some point. Probably.

Anyone have a case report?

 

[Gfunk6]

can any of you clever clogs tell me what the difference is between all these varian machines...?
halcyon
edge
trubeam
vitalbeam
trilogy
clinac
whats so different about them? which one is best? etc?

Halcyon
Small machine - can be used for IMRT/complex 3D; no electron/2D capability
Small footprint - can be placed in vault with diagnostic level shielding due to the machine's own internal shielding
Fast, easy to use from standpoint of workflow

TrueBeam
Varian's workhorse machine and premiere product
It can do everything a versatile linac is supposed to do: IMRT, 3D, 2D, SRS, SBRT, electrons
Comes in a "bare bones" version with features galore available to add-on

Edge
A neutered TrueBeam. Built off of TrueBeam platform but optimized for ablative treatments and (relatively) small field IMRT

Trilogy
Older Varian product when they had an alliance with Brain LAB.
Not as technologically advanced as TrueBeam but can similarly do all treatments - optimized for SRS/SBRT

If you need a single machine, TrueBeam is clearly the "best" as it can do everything. If you need a second machine, Halcyon or Edge may be worth it for you depending on what kind of cases you have.

 

[metallica81788]

I'm guessing you're not an LSU fan?

Terminally ill LSU mascot tiger receives stereotactic radiation for sarcoma

I'm an LSU fan. I was actually going to be in town that weekend and tried calling to see if they'd let me observe. Didn't get the time of day.

Local papers were badmouthing his radiation "scar" - local control was good, died of metastatic disease. Figures.