The Role of Focused Ultrasound in Pancreatic Cancer

Irving Coy Allen, PhD

Gregory Beatty, MD, PhD

Dr Bullock studies the immunological consequences of ablative focused ultrasound in a variety of disease settings. Further, his lab is investigating the utility of blood-brain barrier opening with ultrasound to deliver immunomodulatory agents to brain cancers.

Chris Cabanski, PhD, serves as the Senior Director of Clinical Research at the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy (PICI). He spearheads collaboration with PICI investigators and partners to advance emerging clinical and translational research.

Previously, Dr. Cabanski led PICI’s biostatistics, data management, and clinical science teams, overseeing data collection, analysis, and interpretation for PICI-sponsored clinical trials. Dr. Cabanski earned his Ph.D. in Statistics and Operations Research from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Stephanie Dougan is an Associate Professor of Cancer Immunology and Virology at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and an Associate Professor of Immunology at Harvard Medical School. Her lab uses unique mouse models to study the immune response to tumors such as pancreatic cancer that do not induce a CD8 T cell response at baseline. The Dougan lab has investigated multiple treatment modalities for augmenting T cell responses in pancreatic cancer, including targeted cytokine delivery and anti-CD40 and radiation. She collaborates with basic and clinical faculty through the DFCI Hale Center for Pancreatic Cancer Research to work on advancing new therapeutics for patients with pancreatic cancer. Dr. Dougan is a Pew-Stewart Scholar in Cancer Research, a Bill and Melinda Gates Global Health Innovation Scholar, a Melanoma Research Alliance Young Investigator, and received a Pathway to Leadership Award from the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network and AACR. She has continued to work with the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network on the Precision Promise trial. She is also dedicated to training young scientists and received a Young Mentor Award from Harvard Medical School in 2019.

I am a Professor of Medicine (oncology) specializing in GI cancers and clinical trials. I have been a member of the ECOG-ACRIN GI Committee for >30 years and served as its co-chair for 3 while also serving on the NCI GI Steering Committee. I’ve conducted therapeutic, imaging and biomarker studies on pancreas cancer.

Jessica Foley, PhD is a Managing Director and Chief Scientific Officer for the Focused Ultrasound Foundation, whose mission is to accelerate the development and adoption of focused ultrasound, a breakthrough noninvasive therapeutic medical technology. Dr. Foley leads key scientific programs for the Foundation, and aligns these with business operations, communications, and development activities. She leads alliance-building efforts with external stakeholders including governmental policymakers, regulatory agencies, and disease-specific foundations whose interests are complementary to those of the Foundation. She is a spokesperson and advocate for the Foundation and the focused ultrasound community among a wide variety of stakeholders. Prior to the Foundation she spent several years in the medical device industry (Insightec, Medtronic) and was a AAAS Science and Technology Policy Fellow at the National Science Foundation. She holds a BSE in Biomedical Engineering from Duke University and a PhD in Bioengineering from the University of Washington.

Jessica Gannon completed her Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering in 2021 from Virginia Tech. She conducted undergraduate research with Dr. Eli Vlaisavljevich in his Therapeutic Ultrasound and Non-invasive Therapies Lab where she began investigating histotripsy for pancreatic tumor ablation. She is now working towards her PhD, continuing this work, and is supported by an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship. She recently completed a 6-month Chateaubriand Fellowship in Lyon, France with Dr. Cyril Lafon’s group investigating an alternative trans-gastric targeting approach to the pancreas via an endoscopic high-frequency histotripsy transducer. This work is also supported by a Focused Ultrasound Foundation grant..

I am a diagnostic radiologist with expertise in body MR imaging and serve and Chief of the MRI Body division at Stanford. My research centers on the development of clinical applications of MR guided high intensity focused ultrasound (MRgFUS). I have been the Principal Investigator or co-Director at Stanford University of multi-center trails using MRgFUS to treat essential tremor, Parkinson disease, epilepsy, pancreatic cancer, prostate cancer, bone metastases, uterine fibroids, soft tissue sarcomas and desmoid tumors.

Dr. Gorby received her PhD from Stony Brook University and a postdoctoral fellowship at the National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Mental Health (NIH/NIMH) before pursuing medical writing full-time. Heather has worked as a full-time freelance writer since 2013. She has written various documents including clinical trial manuscripts, literature reviews, continuing medical education, meeting summaries, and white papers. Heather has worked with the FUS Foundation on numerous meeting reports since 2016.

Michael’s research focuses on three areas:

1. Early phase clinical trials of ultrasound-mediated drug delivery for treatment of abdominal organ cancers
2. Clinical translation of quantitative cavitation monitoring techniques for non-invasive treatment guidance, and
3. Development of devices to enable the use of sound, magnetism, and light for targeted drug delivery.

Keaton Jones is a Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic Surgeon in Oxford, UK. He has been involved with the delivery of a clinical trial of FUS ablation of locally advanced pancreas cancer and runs a laboratory focusing on immunomodulation.

I have worked in Yuliya Pylayeva-Gupta’s lab at UNC for almost 10 years as well as actively collaborating with labs throughout Lineberger. The lab focuses on the immune response to pancreatic cancer and how we can modify this response to illicit a better response to immune therapy. My current focuses in the lab are the role of MerTK, Tyro3 and Axl in the tumor microenvironment of PDAC, the role of IL12 and Il23 in the tumor microenvironment and tumor morphology as well as how focused ultrasound can alter the immune environment in primary orthotopic tumors or liver metastasis.

Cyril Lafon earned his B.Sc. degree in Physics from University Blaise Pascal of Clermont Ferrand, France and University of Montreal, Quebec, in 1995, and his Ph.D. degree in Biomedical Engineering from University Claude Bernard of Lyon, France, in 1999. After developing interstitial HIFU probes during his Ph.D. study in INSERM Unit 281, Dr. Lafon joined for two years the Applied Physics Laboratory of the University of Washington, Seattle, as a postdoctoral research fellow. Dr. Lafon worked there on ultrasound induced hemostasis and the development of tissue mimicking phantoms for HIFU applications. Dr. Lafon was recruited by INSERM in 2002 as a research scientist. He is now research director and head of LabTAU, INSERM Unit 1032. His recent research interests focus on modeling ultrasound wave propagation and development of ultrasonic therapeutic devices for thermal ablation or drug delivery. In 2016-2027, Cyril Lafon worked for the department of radiation oncology of the University of Virginia in Charlottesville (USA) under the Robert Merkin fellowship of the FUS Foundation. In 2023, he was appointed Honorary Visiting Professor at the Institute of Cancer Research (Sutton, UK). He is the author of more than 120 articles in peer-reviewed international journals and co funded several companies (Carthera, Caviskills and Veinsound). He received the Frederic Lizzi Early Carreer Award from International Society on Therapeutic Ultrasound in 2010 and was nominated Fellow for the European Alliance for Medical and Biological Engineering & Science (EAMBES) in 2020. Cyril Lafon is the current President of the International Society on Therapeutic Ultrasound.

Hak Jong Lee is a radiologist in field of body imaging. He is also interested in nanotechnology as well as focused ultrasound. His main research field is about Image guided therapy.
He made his own venture company named IMGT (image guided therapy).
Now he is the president of Biomedical institute, Seoul National University Bundang Hospital.

Jae Young Lee MD, PhD, is currently a Professor at the Department of Radiology, Seoul National University (SNU) College of Medicine and Seoul National University Hospital (SNUH). He served as the vice-dean of Research Affairs in SNU College of Medicine for the past four years. He currently holds the position of Chief Innovation and Quality Officer in SNUH.
Prof. Lee received his medical degree from SNU in 1992. Following this, he completed a one-year internship and a four-year radiology residency program at SNUH from 1992 to 1997. After fulfilling a three-year obligatory military service as a medical officer, he pursued a clinical fellowship in the abdominal section of the Department of Radiology at SNUH in 2001. He has been serving as a professor since 2003 at SNUH and became a tenured professor in SNU in 2017. He obtained his PhD in medical science in 2009 from SNU.
Prof. Lee has published approximately 200 scientific articles in international peer-reviewed journals. He has also delivered more than 100 invited lectures in his area of expertise to international audiences.
Prof. Lee now serves as a member of the Korean Society of Ultrasound in Medicine (KSUM), as chair of the Planning. He is also a President of the Korean Society of Therapeutic Ultrasound (KSTU) and vice-President of the Asian Federation of Societies for Ultrasound in Medicine and Biology (AFSUMB).
Prof. Lee’s research focuses on research of diagnostic and therapeutic ultrasound. Recent publication is “Combination of chemotherapy and focused ultrasound for the treatment of unresectable pancreatic cancer: a proof-of-concept study” (European Radiology, 2023 Apr. 33(4), 2620-2628).

Dr. Maruvada is the Assistant Director for the Division of Applied Mechanics in the Office of Science and Engineering Labs in the FDA Center for Devices and Radiological Health. She also leads the Medical Acoustics Program within OSEL. With a background in Electrical Engineering and Acoustics, Dr. Maruvada has worked in the area of ultrasound metrology and modeling for over 25 years. Dr. Maruvada is active in both scientific and standards organizations. She serves as Working Group Convener, primary liaison and technical expert on several working groups within International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) Technical Committee (TC) 87 Ultrasonics and is an active member of the Acoustical Society of America.

Tim works with Chrit Moonen and Lauren Powlovich to lead the research and education team at the Foundation.

David Melodelima was awarded a PhD degree in Biomedical Engineering in 2004 from Lyon 1 university, France. He then conducted postdoctoral research at the Royal Marsden NHS Trust, Institute for Cancer Research in Sutton, UK. He is now a Research Director in the LabTAU (Laboratory of Therapeutic Applications of Ultrasound of INSERM, France) and head of the “High Energy Ultrasound” team. His main research interests focus on the therapeutic applications of ultrasound and the development of new ultrasound imaging methods for guiding HIFU treatments.

Following his studies in biophysics at Wageningen University, Chrit Moonen did a postdoctoral period at the University of Oxford (Sir Georg Radda). He joined UC Davis as a Visiting Research Scientist before becoming head of the NIH In Vivo NMR Research Center from 1987-1996. He was director of the laboratory “Molecular and Functional Imaging: from Physiology to Therapy” in Bordeaux until 2011. He was full professor at the Division of Imaging at the University Medical Center in Utrecht, the Netherlands from 2011-2022. He recently joined the FUSFoundation as co-chair of the Research and Education Team.

Petros received his PhD in cancer cell biology from St. George’s Hospital Medical School University of London, where he investigated the cytotoxic effects of small molecules including thalidomide and vitamin analogues in pancreatic cancer. In 2013 he was recruited from Prof Gail ter Haar to work on the biological effects of focused ultrasound on cancer. Petros’s most recent focus has been the investigation of the immunological effects of focused ultrasound in in vivo pancreatic cancer models.

Robert Owens works as a consultant radiation oncologist for Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust specializing in the treatment of upper and lower GI and HPB cancers. His main area of research and interest is in stereotactic radiotherapy (SABR) particularly in HPB cancers and reirradiation and he has been involved in the development of the SABR service particularly in the use of MR Linac guided therapy.

Frederic Padilla, PhD, is the Director of the Gene and Cell Therapy Program at the Focused Ultrasound Foundation in Charlottesville. He manages for the FUSF a consortium project aimed at comparing the immune response elicited by different focused ultrasound (FUS) modalities in a pancreatic tumor model. His research activities include monitoring the immune response in prostate cancer patients treated with HIFU and investigating the combination of various immunotherapies with FUS in preclinical models.

Ari Partanen received M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in physics and medical physics from the University of Helsinki, Finland, in 2008 and 2013, respectively. From 2008 to 2017, he was a Therapy Clinical Scientist with Philips. Since 2018, he has been with Profound Medical and is the Manager of Clinical Science, Research, and Innovation. His research interests include clinical applications of therapeutic ultrasound.

Lauren Powlovich, MD, MBA, joined the Foundation in March 2019 and serves as Associate Chief Medical Officer. She brings together key stakeholders and synthesizes and executes cohesive plans to advance focused ultrasound for several applications including neurodegenerative disorders, glioblastoma, DIPG/DMG, and sonodynamic therapy. She fosters education by creating and maintaining the Foundation’s comprehensive overview documents that outline the state of the field for a variety of relevant indications. Prior to joining the Foundation, Lauren trained as an anesthesiologist, and she has always been passionate about putting patients first. She continues to have that mindset and works hard to ensure that focused ultrasound reaches patients safely and efficiently.

Richard J. Price, PhD, is the Nancy and Neal Wade Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Professor of Radiology & Medical Imaging at the University of Virginia (UVa). He is also Co-Director of the UVa Focused Ultrasound Cancer Immunotherapy Center and Co-Leader of the UVa Comprehensive Cancer Center’s Therapeutics (CRX) Program. He has been studying ultrasound-targeted drug and gene delivery for ~20 years. He was amongst the first investigators to observe that interactions between contrast agent microbubbles and ultrasound can be used to open endothelial barriers for targeted nanoparticle delivery, with emphasis on delivery across the blood-brain barrier. Recent studies entail using this approach to treat infiltrative gliomas and brain metastases, as well as for reversing neurodegeneration in Parkinson’s Disease and stabilizing cerebral cavernous malformations. Dr. Price is also studying how focused ultrasound can synergize with various immunotherapeutic approaches, with his research in this area supporting clinical trials at UVa combining focused ultrasound with chemo- and immunotherapy for multiple cancer indications. Dr. Price has received the Andrew J. Lockhart Memorial Award for Focused Ultrasound Cancer Research, the Jorge Heller Award for Outstanding Original Research Paper in the Journal of Controlled Release, and the Gerritsen Award for most highly cited review article from the Microcirculatory Society. He is a Fellow of the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering and the Controlled Release Society. He has served on the Executive Council of the Microcirculatory Society and the ISTU Board of Directors.

Sarwish Rafiq, PhD, is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Hematology and Medical Oncology at Emory University School of Medicine. Dr. Rafiq earned her PhD in Immunology/Cancer Biology from The Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio. She completed her post-doctoral training in cellular immunotherapy at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, New York. The overall goal of Dr. Rafiq’s research is to use mechanistic insight of immune effector cell function and interaction with cancer cells in the tumor microenvironment to inform the development and translation of novel engineered cellular immunotherapies. In particular, her work focuses on the genetic engineering of synthetic receptors known as Chimeric Antigen Receptors (CAR). As a translational cancer researcher, Dr. Rafiq’s studies aim to engineer novel CARs to target both solid and hematological malignancies as well as deliver immune-modulating or toxic agents locally to the tumor microenvironment.

Prof. ter Haar leads the therapeutic ultrasound team at The Institute for Cancer Research (ICR), where her work centers on understanding how ultrasound interacts with tissue. Her most recent research has involved developing devices and protocols for ultrasound-based treatments of cancer, investigating focused ultrasound for immune stimulation, and using focused ultrasound to treat liver and kidney tumors. Prof. ter Haar is the founding President of the International Society for Therapeutic Ultrasound (ISTU). She is also an honorary member of the British Medical Ultrasound Society (BMUS) and the Society of Thermal Medicine (STM), honorary fellow of the American Institute for Ultrasound in Medicine (AIUM), and fellow of both the Acoustical Society of America (ASA) and the Institute of Physics and Engineering in Medicine (IPEM). She leads the UK-based ThUNDDAR (Therapy Ultrasound Network for Drug Delivery and Ablation Research) network, which promotes collaboration between British and European groups working with therapeutic ultrasound. Prof. ter Haar is deputy editor of Ultrasound in Medicine and Biology, associate editor of Ultrasonics, and on the editorial boards of International Journal of Hyperthermia and Medical Physics. She has written five books, 32 book chapters, and more than 250 peer reviewed research papers.

Joan Vidal-Jové is a surgical oncologist trained in Barcelona and Washington DC, and in Focused Ultrasound Ablation by the University of Chongqing, China. At present he runs a private Comprehensive Tumor Center in Barcelona, and is a research and medical consultant for Histosonics, Inc. He was the Principal Investigator of the First in Human Study of Histotripsy in Liver Tumors in 2018. Since then, he has been involved in the development of Histotripsy in clinical settings and researched the immune effect associated with it. He is leading the application of Histotripsy in pancreatic tumors in human patients.

Dr. Vlaisavljevich is an Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Mechanics at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. His research interests include focused ultrasound, non-invasive tissue ablation (HIFU, histotripsy), cavitation physics, nanoparticle-mediated histotripsy (NMH), biomaterials, tissue regeneration, cancer, non-invasive neuromodulation, and clinical translation. Prior to joining Virginia Tech, Dr. Vlaisavljevich conducted his graduate degrees in the Histotripsy Lab at the University of Michigan (2010-2015) and then spent two years working at HistoSonics (2015-2017) on the development of histotripsy for the treatment of liver cancer. More information about Dr. Vlaisavljevich’s research group can be found at https://ultrasound-lab.beam.vt.edu.

Professor Feng Wu, MD & PhD, is a world-leading HIFU surgeon who specialises in the clinical applications of focused ultrasound therapy. He is a co-founder of the International Society for Therapeutic Ultrasound (ISTU) and served as the 1st Secretary-General of the organisation. Professor Wu began his research career in HIFU therapy in 1988, organised and led HIFU clinical trials from 1997 to 2001 in China. These trials focused on treating solid tumours throughout the body, including those of the liver, kidney, breast, pancreas, uterus, bone, and soft tissues.

In 2002, Professor Wu was invited to help establish the first clinical HIFU Unit in the United Kingdom. Since then, he has been working as a HIFU consultant at Oxford University Hospitals and also serves as a senior clinical scientist at the Nuffield Department of Surgical Sciences, University of Oxford. He has published more than 200 papers in peer-reviewed journals, 1 book and 12 book chapters. Professor Wu received the ISTU William and Francis Fry Award in 2013 and also served as the Honorary Symposium President for the 4th International Symposium on Focused Ultrasound organised by FUS Foundation in the USA in 2014.