Principal investigator Joanne Tuohy, assistant professor of surgical oncology in the Department of Small Animal Clinical Sciences (DSACS), and co-investigators Eli Vlaisavljevich, assistant professor of biomedical engineering and mechanics in Virginia Tech's College of Engineering; Irving Coy Allen, associate professor of inflammatory disease in the Department of Biomedical Sciences and Pathobiology (DBSP); Sheryl Coutermarsh-Ott, assistant professor of anatomic pathology in DBSP; Nick Dervisis, associate professor of oncology in DSACS; Shawna Klahn, associate professor of oncology in DSACS; and Kemba Clapp, assistant professor of radiology in the DSACS, have been awarded a grant from the Focused Ultrasound Foundation (FUF) to investigate the feasibility of treating osteosarcoma with histotripsy.

TITLE
Histotripsy for treatment of canine appendicular osteosarcoma

FUNDING AGENCY
Focused Ultrasound Foundation

TOTAL AWARD
$144,107

DURATION OF AWARD
1 year

KEY FACULTY PERSONNEL
PI: Joanne Tuohy
Co-I: Eli Vlaisavljevich, Irving Allen, Sheryl Coutermarsh-Ott, Nikolaos Dervisis, Shawna Klahn, Kemba Clapp

SIGNFICANCE
Osteosarcoma (OS) is a bone tumor that affects both dogs and humans. Histotripsy is a non-thermal focused ultrasound method that could potentially be a non-surgical limb salvage treatment for the primary tumor in OS, and activate an anti-tumor immune response to target metastatic disease. This study aims to demonstrate the feasibility of treating OS with histotripsy, and evaluate the local and systemic effects of treating OS with histotripsy.