A legacy of hope

The future of cancer treatment may be less about surgery and more about sound. 

This foundational principle is at the heart of the work at Virginia Tech, where researchers are developing histotripsy, a non-invasive, focused ultrasound technology that is transforming care for bone cancer in dogs, with implications for humans.

“So many dogs are affected by osteosarcoma, which is a very painful disease and also very aggressive,” said Joanne Tuohy, associate professor of surgical oncology at the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine and one of the researchers leading the effort. “And unfortunately, people, especially children and teenagers, are also affected by osteosarcoma in very similar ways.”

But scientific breakthroughs rely on the courage of patients and families willing to step into the unknown. The harsh reality of this disease became immediate and personal for one such family and their dog, Buddha.

“Back in July, we noticed that Buddha had a lump on his right leg and he was limping, so we thought maybe he had twisted his ankle,” said owner Eugenio Burgaleta. “My wife, Laurie, took him to the vet, they did X-rays, and were like, ‘Well, bad news, he's got bone cancer. Osteosarcoma.’ It was devastating.”

Standard treatment options — amputation, chemotherapy, and radiation — each came with serious consequences for the large 7-year-old Rottweiler-Pyrenees mix. For the Burgaletas, traditional care meant sacrificing their dog's mobility and happiness.

"We wanted him to have a good life for as long as possible," Burgaleta said. "And we didn't feel that amputation would give that to him."

Seeking an alternative that preserved both his leg and his comfort, the family enrolled Buddha in the histotripsy clinical trial.

The science of sound

Histotripsy is a non-thermal focused ultrasound technology that uses sound waves to mechanically destroy cancerous tissue.

"Histotripsy is very precise,” said Elliana Vickers, a biomedical engineering Ph.D. candidate in the Therapeutic Ultrasound and Non-Invasive Therapies Laboratory. “The focused ultrasound creates these bubbles that are expanding and collapsing, almost like a little bubble blender that just mechanically disintegrates and liquefies the cancerous tissue without harming the cells around it." 

Tuohy and her College of Engineering collaborator,  Eli Vlaisavljevich, Kendall and Laura Hendrick Junior Faculty Fellow in the Department of Biomedical Engineering, are focused on using this technology to combat the challenges of bone cancer.

"We embarked on this journey to develop histotripsy for ablating osteosarcoma," Tuohy said. "Our first goal is to ablate the tumor in the bone. If we can eliminate the tumor within the bone, then we could offer a non-surgical limb-sparing technique that can help dogs and people preserve their limbs."

The density of bone presents a unique physical barrier, reflecting sound waves in a way that soft tissue does not.

"It makes treating tumors inside bone more challenging," Vickers said. "Our view is more limited; it takes longer to treat, and it takes a higher dose to treat. It's just tougher. But if we can treat osteosarcoma with histotripsy, I feel like there's nothing we can't treat."