A team of engineers and veterinarians are developing a device that can destroy brain cancer tumors in dogs, and eventually, they hope to adapt the technology to use the method to help humans too.
Brain cancer is very difficult to treat in both humans and dogs. So a team of researchers are working on a way to shrink tumors, with focused ultrasound.
“And so this could revolutionize surgical approaches to certain kinds of cancer if you don’t have to actually make a surgical incision,” said John Rossmeisl, a neurologist at the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine. For several years, he and a team of mechanical engineers have been adapting a histotripsy device to treat dog tumors.
“So it’s using soundwaves that are focused on a single point in the body to create bubbles,” said Eli Vlaisavljevich, one of the Virginia Tech engineers on the project. He helped develop a histotripsy device that was recently approved by the Food and Drug Administration to treat liver cancer in humans
“Similar to when you boil bubbles in water. You’re just doing the same thing with pressure,” Vlaisavljevich said. “So you take a tumor, and mechanically destroy all the cells.”
They hope to eventually develop a hand-held device that’s inexpensive and easy to use.
“So not only improving it, but getting it to patients everywhere, whether that’s animals or humans that need it,” Vlaisavljevich said.
Rossmeisl said they are accepting more dog patients, as trials for the treatment continue at the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine.
This post was originally published on this site be sure to check out more of their content.
