Canine Skin Cancer Screening

If you find a lump on your dog, book with our team today!

Pet Cancer Screening

Here at PetSmart Veterinary Services Garner, we have invested in the HT Vista, an artificial intelligence skin cancer screening device! Sadly, half of dogs over 10 years develop cancer, and 1/3 of those cancers are skin related. Catching cancer early means a better prognosis! Which is why we want to introduce this new technology to our dog owners. The device is safe to use on the skin and is well tolerated by patients. No- needles, gives instant results, is good value for money and highly accurate.

The HT Vista is the first artificial intelligence skin cancer screening device for dogs, performed by vets and nurses. It is a 40-second scan, no needles and results take two minutes! The HT Vista uses heat diffusion imaging technology (HDI) to determine if a mass is benign or requires further investigation. The device heats the lump by 6 degrees and is left to cool. The device then monitors the thermal activity and special features of the tissue. The data is sent to the artificial intelligence for analysis, and results are returned in two minutes!

The device is able to do this as different types of skin react differently when heated! For example, healthy skin maintains temperature well and unhealthy does not! This is because healthy and unhealthy skin have different structures, metabolism, and blood supply!

Your dog’s mass will receive a score between 1-10 and a percentage of how likely it is to be benign. For example, a 10 HDI score is 99% benign and a 4 HDI score is 89%. We will discuss the results and potentially take a sample of low score masses for lab analysis.

FAQ's

How does the appointment work?

Give us a call or book online and let us know you want a skin cancer screening appointment. We will book you in for a consultation where a full body physical exam will be performed and discuss the location of the lumps you are concerned about. Your dog will then be admitted for a few hours, and we will perform the scans. We must clip fur from the skin so that the device can scan properly! So let us know if this is a problem. If a lump is given a low score on the device we can discuss sampling through fine needle aspirate, wedge biopsy or removal under general anaesthetic and sending the mass for laboratory histology.

Will the device hurt my dog or affect the lump if it is cancer?

No, the device is non-invasive and heats the skin by 6-7 degrees only with an LED light, which is safe for everyone involved.

What if a mass gets a score between 5 and 10?

The device is 90% or over (average of 98%) certain that the mass is benign, therefore no further investigation is needed. However, if you want to investigate further, we can. Either way we advise you keep an eye on the mass for any changes.

What if a mass gets a score between 1 and 4?

It does not mean that the mass is malignant! It only means that the device couldn’t guarantee at a high (higher than 90%) level of confidence that the mass is benign. The mass might have shown some suspicious thermal features, therefore, we would highly recommend further investigating this mass. By not sampling the mass, we are taking a risk that a malignant mass might get missed. Early detection of malignant masses offers better prognosis and treatment options. The result might still return as benign, however, it is better to be safe than sorry.

My dog has a lump on his eye and foot pad. Can we scan it?

Unfortunately, not. The light is too close to the eye, therefore, might damage the eye and won’t be tolerated. Also, the footpad cannot be scanned with healthy tissue which is needed to complete the scan.