Vetgirl Veterinary Continuing Education Podcasts

In this VETgirl online veterinary continuing education podcast, we discuss the use of sterotactic body radiation therapy for the treatment of heart base tumors in dogs. The two most common anatomic locations for cardiac neoplasia include the right atrium/auricle, and the heart base. Tumors at the heart base are most commonly chemodectomas, otherwise known as aortic body tumors, which are neuroendocrine tumors arising from the wall of the ascending aorta. Brachycephalic breeds are overrepresented in dogs with heart base tumors (HBTs). In many dogs, the identification of HBTs is incidental. Clinical signs in dogs with HBTs are generally associated with complications of local tumor invasion, including pericardial effusion, cardiac arrhythmias, obstruction of cardiac chambers or vasculature, and right sided congestive heart failure. HBTs are rarely confirmed via antemortem histopathology due to the risk of complications associated with biopsy and the relatively reliable predictive nature of tumor type based on ul