SANTA MONICA, Calif., Nov. 12, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- VCA Animal Hospitals announced today a partnership with Varian, as part of its newly launched network of VCA Pet CancerCare™ Centers across North America, to provide advanced pet cancer radiotherapy treatment at its specialty hospitals.
VCA Pet CancerCare™ Centers are designed to cultivate open lines of communication, accessibility, and collaboration between oncologists and primary care veterinarians across the network – making a pet cancer diagnosis a more manageable condition and understandable process while giving clinicians and pet patients more quality time together.
Many VCA Pet CancerCare™ Centers will install a fully integrated suite of Varian products, including its ARIA® and Eclipse™ software platforms and TrueBeam® or Halcyon™ radiotherapy systems. These radiotherapy systems deliver high dose cancer treatment with tremendous accuracy, narrowly targeting tumors and minimizing exposure of the surrounding healthy tissues and organs. This technology's ability to spare surrounding normal tissues will help oncologists achieve their goal of delivering high-quality treatments, reducing hospital visits, and shortening treatment times, while improving tumor response and minimizing side effects for pets.
"As part of VCA's effort to create the nation's largest network of veterinary-specific oncology treatment centers, we're proud to partner with Varian to offer state-of-the-art technology that enables our veterinarians to drive the industry forward. VCA now offers radiation therapy options on par with the capabilities of North America's top human cancer centers," said Dr. Jamie Custis, Chair of VCA's Radiation Oncology Steering Committee. "By partnering with Varian, our veterinary oncologists can access tools and technologies allowing for collaboration in our ongoing mission to improve the quality of life of pets."
VCA board-certified oncology teams will develop individualized treatment plans for pets using advanced software (Varian Eclipse), proprietary machine learning, artificial intelligence, and patient-specific computed tomography scans. This technology makes it possible to deliver fast and accurate image-guided treatments within just a few minutes per day, with the goal to make cancer treatment faster, more effective, and with fewer side effects so pets remain comfortable and active during radiotherapy.
"We're thrilled to embark on this journey with VCA and their Pet CancerCare™ Centers," said Eric Stewart, Global Managing Director, Veterinary Oncology at Varian. "Their work in veterinary oncology is inspirational, serving as a testament to the breakthroughs that are achieved by communities of clinicians, surgeons, and solution providers dedicated to fighting cancer and improving the quality of life of pets."
There are 35 VCA specialty hospitals collaborating to create Pet CancerCare™ Centers across North America. The first five Pet CancerCare™ Centers to receive Varian radiotherapy systems include, VCA California Veterinary Specialists, in Carlsbad, CA; VCA Sacramento Vet Referral in California, VCA Advanced Veterinary Care Center in Fishers, Indiana; VCA Aurora Animal Hospital in Illinois; and VCA SouthPaws Veterinary Specialists & Emergency Center in Fairfax, Virginia.
For a full list of VCA Pet CancerCare™ Centers, please visit http://www.vcapetcancercare.com/.
About VCA Animal Hospitals
VCA Animal Hospitals operates more than 930 small animal veterinary hospitals in the U.S., Canada and Brazil. The hospitals are staffed by more than 6,300 fully qualified, dedicated and compassionate veterinarians to give pets the very best in medical care, of which over 600 are board-certified specialists who are experts in areas such as oncology, cardiology, emergency and critical care, and surgery for animals. VCA Animal Hospitals provides a full range of general practice services to keep pets well and specialized treatments when pets are ill. For more information, please visit VCAhospitals.com or follow on Twitter @vcapethealth and facebook.com/VCAAnimalHospitals/.
About Varian
At Varian, we envision a world without fear of cancer. For more than 70 years, we have developed, built and delivered innovative cancer care technologies and solutions for our clinical partners around the globe to help them treat millions of patients each year. With an Intelligent Cancer Care approach, we are harnessing advanced technologies like artificial intelligence, machine learning and data analytics to enhance cancer treatment and expand access to care. Our 9,200 employees across 70 countries keep the patient and our clinical partners at the center of our thinking as we power new victories in cancer care. Because, for cancer patients everywhere, their fight is our fight. For more information, visit http://www.varian.com and follow @VarianMedSys on Twitter and www.facebook.com/VarianMedicalSystems.
SOURCE VCA Animal Hospitals
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