TomoTherapy is now state-of-the-art treatment for people, with several hundred such machines being used worldwide on human cancers. Among the recent pet beneficiaries was Scout, a Wheaten terrier that belongs to a family in Mequon, Wis. The cost of saving a life Kathy Hrkac and her husband had bought the dog for their two daughters, "and he was a family member, full of life and love," she said — until suddenly, about two years ago, blood started dripping from the 5-year-old terrier's nose and he had a hard time breathing. The diagnosis: a quickly spreading nose cancer that left him with about one month to live. "It was heart-wrenching," Hrkac said in a telephone interview from her home. Scout underwent TomoTherapy about a year and a half ago and it spared his mouth and eyes, which likely would have been damaged by conventional radiation, Gengler said. The Wisconsin veterinary school at first shared a TomoTherapy machine with the university's medical school.