Focused Ultrasound in Veterinary Oncology
Key Points
- Dr. Bergman joined the Foundation in April 2025 as the director of the Veterinary Program.
- Learn more about his impressive career and how he sees focused ultrasound impacting both human and animal care.
As the Foundation’s Veterinary Program Director, Dr. Philip Bergman oversees Foundation-funded preclinical research and the clinical studies that enroll companion animals. Dr. Bergman is a nationally recognized leader in veterinary oncology and cancer immunotherapy. He has held senior clinical research roles with VCA Animal Hospitals and Mars Veterinary Health and previously led the Donaldson-Atwood Cancer Center at New York’s Animal Medical Center. Dr. Bergman is also the principal veterinary investigator for the licensed canine melanoma vaccine Oncept and an adjunct faculty member at Memorial Sloan Kettering.
With a goal of supporting the rapid translation of innovations from bench to bedside, his vast experience with the unique role that veterinary medicine plays in medical research will foster and support the continued development of the focused ultrasound veterinary community.
We recently sat down for a Q&A with him, where he shared his background, how mentorship and “one medicine” thinking shaped his training and career, and his vision for making focused ultrasound the fifth pillar of cancer treatment. Beyond cancer, he believes that focused ultrasound could become a powerful new tool for treating many diseases in animals.
What first drew you to veterinary oncology?
I knew since I was a little kid that I was going to be a veterinarian. My family is a German dairy cow family from Wisconsin, so I always envisioned being a dairy practitioner. In my third year of vet school, however, I was helping a cow-calf operation pull calves in Wyoming while it was freezing outside. I realized that I did not mesh well with that lifestyle, so I changed course to pursue orthopedic surgery. But then some of my mentors at Colorado State introduced me to oncology at the same time that my grandfather was dying from metastatic prostate cancer. These experiences led me to veterinary oncology.
You completed both a veterinary degree and a PhD in human cancer biology. What motivated you to focus on both of these areas?
As I was completing the training to become a veterinary oncologist, I secured an internship at Kansas State University. I was then afforded the opportunity to go back to Colorado State University (CSU) for a residency in medical oncology. It was there that I got bitten by the research bug. I found conducting clinical research and making discoveries through bench research to both be exhilarating. The CSU residency inspired me to pursue my PhD at MD Anderson Cancer Center. My mentor, Josh Fidler, DVM, PhD, who is a pioneer in metastatic cancer biology at MD Anderson, reviewed my experience, set me up with a fellowship from the American Cancer Society, and suggested leveraging my previous research to pursue a PhD.
How did completing your PhD at MD Anderson affect your career?
Clinicians and researchers do not always communicate well with one another. MD Anderson taught me that I could cross the chasm between research and clinical medicine, and that this strength was valuable to the field. The first six months of the PhD were extremely challenging, because I was unfamiliar with the scientific terminology in my department. I remember telling my wife, that I had made a mistake. She encouraged me to stick with it, and a few months later, I had learned the lingo and was able to push through.
What is Oncept, and why is it so groundbreaking?
In 1999, I was invited to a gathering in New York City when the Animal Medical Center was trying to create collaborations with Sloan Kettering. Jedd Wolchok, MD, PhD, asked me whether dogs get melanoma, and we began discussing his vaccine that was successful in mice but many years away from being translated for use in humans. He saw veterinary medicine as a bridge that could benefit dogs and then potentially people. I was all in, and the collaboration eventually led to the development of Oncept.
Oncept is a xenogeneic DNA vaccination that tricks the immune system into breaking tolerance. We studied tyrosinase as the rate-limiting enzyme in the formation of black pigment. Xenogeneic means that the DNA comes from another species. For example, giving a dog tyrosinase from another dog has no effect, but tyrosine from a human, mouse, or any other species awoke the immune system of dogs. We tested human tyrosinase for veterinary species, and it worked out incredibly well because we were able to show both safety and efficacy in dogs. And now we have shown it works in horses and cats as well.
Can you explain the idea of One Health or One Medicine?
Dogs and cats get many of the same diseases that humans get. Mice have limitations, because they do not routinely develop the same spontaneous diseases as humans, and they live in a laboratory. But most scientific research is done on mice, and it is not necessarily translatable. Dogs and cats have intact immune systems, and they spontaneously develop diseases, including cancer, that better recapitulate the human condition. Using pets as spontaneous models improves veterinary outcomes and it can also impact human medicine. Both sides can inform the other.
What are some examples of clinical trials using focused ultrasound to help animals?
We are at the beginning of the focused ultrasound journey in veterinary medicine, but human research that has already been conducted provides a long glide slope. For example, with osteosarcoma, there is a chance that minimally invasive or noninvasive focused ultrasound treatments will make it possible to dogs to keep their affected limb within the next three to five years. And we may have unexpected immune-based effects. Preliminary studies are leading us to believe that focused ultrasound could treat the local tumor but also induce immune effects that prevent metastases. Lipoma is another example. Sometimes these benign tumors get so big that they cannot be surgically removed. Treating them with focused ultrasound may prevent some surgeries. A study at Auburn is testing the technology for treating diabetes in overweight cats. Other investigators are looking at glioblastoma. It is up to us to figure out the best indications.
In 5 to 10 years, what progress do you hope to see?
Surgery, radiation, chemotherapy, and immunotherapy have been called the four pillars of oncology treatment. I envision focused ultrasound as becoming the fifth pillar. My hope is that in five years veterinary medicine will recognize focused ultrasound as a remarkable tool. Researchers are now developing veterinary-specific focused ultrasound systems, and I would like to see them installed at the majority of the large emergency and specialty veterinary centers and teaching hospitals. From years five to ten, I would like to see focused ultrasound used in primary care practices.
What focused ultrasound treatments might become available to pet owners?
I have a significant interest in treating cats with hyperthyroidism. The current standard of care is surgery or radioiodine, which are invasive and isolating. Iodine-free diets are expensive and problematic. I envision primary practice veterinarians treating these tiny thyroid adenomas with focused ultrasound. This dream is years away, but we can get there.
What are the biggest challenges for using focused ultrasound in animals?
The biggest limitation right now is the machine. Human focused ultrasound systems can be extremely expensive—a million dollars and up—and that does not work in veterinary medicine. A less costly veterinary-specific machine is needed. Interestingly, the regulatory pathway for veterinary devices is less restrictive. Efficacy studies are not needed, which reduces cost and development time, but veterinarians need to know that a device is safe and efficacious before buying it for their practice.
Finally, tell us about your pets!
Our COVID pandemic rescue dog is named Wellie. She’s a dearly loved mutt. Sadly, we lost two of our three cats to cancer in the past couple of years. Our remaining cat is Moufette, a beautiful, black long hair who we adopted because we knew no one else would. She is 17 years old and thinks that Wellie is her mom or dad. Wellie tolerates her!