Tess, a 40 year old African penguin who lives at the Pueblo Zoo in Colorado, has an aggressive skin cancer on her face. She was taken to Colorado State University in Fort Collins, where she was zapped with radiation. She seems to be recovering nicely, and is back at the zoo, swimming with her friends.
A CT scan confirmed a 1-by-1-by-.5 centimeter tumor, about the size of a pinto bean, on the right side of Tess’s face. Dr. Jamie Custis, a radiation oncologist, hoped the small tumor could be mitigated with a single 21-minute, 59-second dose of electronic brachytherapy – a form of radiation delivered with state-of-the-art technology, which focuses beams so well that nearby tissues and organs are not harmed.
