Keynote Speakers

Dr. Susan LaRue is a Professor of Radiation Oncology at Colorado State University and head of the Radiation Oncology Service. She attended Veterinary College and completed her Internship at the University of Georgia. From there headed to Colorado State University (CSU) where she completed her residency in small animal surgery and became a Diplomate in the American College of Veterinary Surgery. Working alongside Dr. Stephen Withrow, Dr. LaRue was fascinated in the field of oncology and she helped Dr. Withrow with development of surgical limb-spare techniques. She then pursued her Ph.D in Radiation Biology where she worked with Edward Gillette, one of the first veterinarians to use the animal tumor model for translational research. In 2008, CSU purchased a Trilogy™, the state-of-the-art linear accelerator. Since then she has helped redefine veterinary radiation oncology using Stereotactic Radiation therapy (SRT) and trained numerous residents in advanced radiation technique. Dr. LaRue believes that a good translational researcher should be able to design clinical trials that help the individual pet, provide information to the veterinary oncology community and be able to ease the transition of novel ideas to human clinical patients.