By John McDevitt

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - A new technology in fighting cancer in dogs is being tested in clinical trials at the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine. Dogs with specific cancers are needed for the study.

Dr. David Holt, professor of surgery at Penn Vet, says he’s been testing intraoperative cancer imaging systems on dogs with soft tissue tumors and lung cancer.

“For the last 100-200 years, surgeons have used their eyes and their hands to look and the tumor and feel the tumor, and their experience to tells them how much to take out, but not anything else. So we are trialing several imaging systems that allow us to visualize the extent of the cancer during surgery and insure that when we take it out we take it all out.”

Information gathered will be shared with Penn’s School of Medicine where similar clinical trials in humans are planned.

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