Strålbehandling på hund och katt
StrålbehandlingRadiotherapyCancerCellenStrålningOrtovoltageFraktionPalliativKurativExternBrachyterapi
Jönköping Small Animal Hospital is today the only clinic in Sweden to offer radiation therapy as a treatment of tumours.
The body contains of billions of cells that all have to obey the regulations that are established. If a cell is exposed to a harmful substance, for example a chemical, it can be transformed into a tumourcell. Normally the body has a good defence but the tumourcell can survive and start to divide unrestrained. A tumour is starting to develop. To make a diagnosis and determine if radiotherapy is an option for treatment, you have to have a proper anamnesis and make a medical examination of the animal. A sample is taken from the tissue to determine the type of the tumor. There are many different types of radiotherapy. External beam radiation is used in Sweden in form of ortovoltage. Ortovoltage is used for superficial tumours because the radiation only reaches a couple of centimetres into the tissue. The intention of the radiotherapy is as high death of tumourcells and as little damage to the healthy cells as possible. There are different purposes with the treatment. It can be palliative or curative and the most common is a combination with other treatments, for example surgery. The radiation affects the cell direct or indirect by creating a biological effect on the DNA. Depending on witch purpose the radiation has and what type of tissue you irradiate, side effects of different shapes and seriousness can arise. The most common are acute side effects in shape of skin irritation. The radiotherapy is divided into fractions. How many and how often depends of the type of the tumour and the purpose with the treatment. During the fraction the radiation area is fixed and the lightfield is adjusted. The patient is sent to sleep during the whole therapy. Possible aftercare depends of number of side effects and their extent.
After the last therapy you follow the patient with continuous controls and documentation.