Cancer Care
Head of Oncology and Fellowship trained Surgical Oncologist Dr. Stewart Ryan lead our Specialist Surgeons and clinicians in one of Melbourne’s most experienced and capable oncology services. Our Cancer Care Plan provides access to this depth of knowledge and clinical capability. At Southpaws, we understand that support and treatment for cancer is not only unique and specific for each patient, but also a journey for beloved pets and their families. Every care plan benefits from a collaborative, team-based oncology service for the duration of their treatment including the important partnership with primary care veterinarians. We design and tailor each care plan based on the individual needs and circumstances of families we serve. We have consolidated and simplified our fee structures to a $330 Cancer Care Consultation whether there is an existing cancer diagnosis, a lump on a leg, and everything in between. Diagnostic testing, Imaging, Surgery and medical treatments are not included in the care plan but will likely become part of the process.
ONCOLOGY DEPARTMENT
Patients diagnosed with cancer often require a multimodal approach, meaning a combination of different treatments. This generally means we advise imaging and staging of those patients to form the best plan of treatment for the individual. Surgery may be part of that plan but we feel it is important to discuss alternative options and also inform you about other treatments that may be required on top of surgery. We generally want you to receive all the necessary information about your pet’s cancer from the get-go to avoid any problems and frustrations later. This is best achieved by speaking to an oncologist at your initial appointment and we aim to process everything in a timely fashion.
Patients diagnosed with cancer often require a multimodal approach, meaning a combination of different treatments. This generally means we advise imaging and staging of those patients to form the best plan of treatment for the individual. Surgery may be part of that plan but we feel it is important to discuss alternative options and also inform you about other treatments that may be required on top of surgery. We generally want you to receive all the necessary information about your pet’s cancer from the get-go to avoid any problems and frustrations later.
Southpaws’ Oncology services are led by Dr Stewart Ryan BVSc(Hons), MS,Diplomate ACVS and ECVS, Founding Fellow ACVS (Surgical Oncology); Specialist in Small Animal Surgery
Dr. Stewart is a graduate of the Melbourne Veterinary School (1989), Stewart is an Associate Professor (Small Animal Surgery) in the Faculty of Science at the University of Melbourne and also works in private specialty practice at Southpaws Specialty Surgery and Referral Hospital in Melbourne.
SURGICAL ONCOLOGY
Surgery is the most effective method for treatment of cancer in animals and humans. The success of cancer surgery is highly dependent on the skills and experience of our specialist surgeons – we have personally operated on more than 20,000 veterinary patients with cancer. Click here for more details on our expert staff. The key to success with surgical oncology is to minimise the chances of local recurrence. Our team achieve complete surgical margins in over 95% of tumours and we will discuss the statistical likelihood of recurrence during your free surgical consultation. In the unlikely event that complete surgical excision is not possible, radiation therapy is very effective for preventing tumour recurrence. Our surgeons have published widely on soft tissue sarcomas in dogs and in cats and our work has been key references for others studying veterinary cancer treatment.
DIAGNOSIS & IMAGING
Complete Cancer Care at Southpaws is founded on the most up to date diagnostic and imaging technology. Most of our imaging capabilities are the kind you would find in a human hospital. Our capabilities include :
CHEMOTHERAPY
Chemotherapy is effective in improving survival for many tumours for which surgery or radiation therapy are not appropriate. For dogs and cats these include lymphoma, haemangiosarcoma, osteosarcoma, mast cell tumours, multiple myeloma and some cases of melanoma and transitional cell carcinoma. Chemotherapy can be used either as an integrated treatment with surgery and radiation therapy, or as a standalone treatment, depending on anticipated outcomes. Modern chemotherapy alone provides increasingly improved outcomes in both dogs and cats.
Options include:
Southpaws’ in-house laboratory haematology capabilities are used to monitor patients under treatment. Our Idexx LaserCyte® haematology unit provides full, five part differential results within minutes. This provides accurate results critical to safe administration of chemotherapy and significantly shortens hospitalisation times and treatment sessions for your pet. We do on-site biochemical screening and collection and interpretation of cytology samples while patient histology samples and complex blood tests, are submitted to an external laboratory for interpretation by an expert pathologist. In the unlikely event of a chemotherapy complication, our technology allows close monitoring of patients during recovery.
