Max Latifi, Alayna Hay, Jennifer Carroll, Nikolaos Dervisis, Lauren Arnold, Sheryl L. Coutermarsh-Ott, Katharine R. Kierski, Shawna Klahn, Irving C. Allen, Eli Vlaisavljevich, and Joanne Tuohy have published "Focused ultrasound tumour ablation in small animal oncology" in Veterinary and Comparative Oncology.

Focused ultrasound (FUS) tumour ablation techniques represent a novel non-invasive approach to treating cancer. FUS ablation is precise, thus sparing adjacent critical structures while ablating the tumour. FUS ablation can occur in a thermal or non-thermal fashion. Thermal FUS ablation, also known as high intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) ablation, destroys tumour cells via heat, whereas non-thermal FUS, known as histotripsy, ablates tumour cells via mechanical disintegration of tissue. Not only can HIFU and histotripsy ablate tumours, they also demonstrate potential to upregulate the host immune system towards an anti-tumour response.

The aim of this report is provide a description of HIFU and histotripsy tumour ablation, with a focus on the basic principles of their ablation mechanisms and their clinical applicability in the field of veterinary oncology.

This work was supported in part by the American Kennel Club Canine Health Foundation; Focused Ultrasound Foundation; the National Institutes of Health; and the Grayton Friedlander Memorial Fund.

Latifi is a former small animal intern, Hay is a postdoctoral research associate in the Veterinary Oncology Laboratory, Carroll is a former oncology resident, Dervisis is associate professor of medical oncology, Kierski is a former surgical oncology intern, Klahn is associate professor of medical oncology, and Tuohy is assistant professor of surgical oncology in the college's Department of Small Animal Clinical Sciences.

Coutermarsh-Ott is a former assistant professor of anatomic pathology and current adjunct, and Allen is associate professor of inflammatory disease in the college's Deparment of Biomedical Sciences and Pathobiology.

Vlaisavljevich is assistant professor in the College of Engineering's Department of Biomedical Engineering and Mechanics, and Arnold is a biomedical engineering and sciences Ph.D. student in Vlaisavljevich's Therapeutic Ultrasound and Noninvasive Therapies Laboratory.