Home / Frontier science

Frontier research

The next generation of tumor treatment

FLASH ultra-fast radiation, ultrasound and electric pulse therapies are being tested as ways to destroy tumors without cutting, and in some cases to activate the immune system to get in the fight. Veterinary trials are where many of these technologies first prove themselves effective.

The One Health initiative

Dogs and people share these cancers

One Health is the idea that human and animal health are deeply connected. Veterinary researchers run clinical trials in companion animals because dogs develop cancers naturally, with the same aggressive biology seen in people, unlike laboratory mice.¹

These trials give our beloved companions access to promising treatments, and they produce fast, meaningful data that helps cure human cancers too.^2,3 Nasal tumors in dogs closely resemble human sinonasal and head and neck cancers, which makes them a strong model for both.

What we support FLASH

Proton FLASH radiation therapy

Energy: Protons at ultra-high dose rate
Delivery: Under one second
Stage: Early clinical research

FLASH delivers radiation hundreds of times faster than conventional machines. In animal studies, healthy tissue tolerated the same dose far better, while tumors were controlled just as well.

For a nasal tumor, the organs at risk are the eyes, skin and brain, all millimeters away. A treatment that spares them could allow higher, more effective doses with fewer side effects. The University of Pennsylvania built one of the first proton FLASH systems, and this research is a central focus of the fund.

Trials

Canine head and neck cancersPenn Vet, Ryan Veterinary Hospital

Penn Vet's study of FLASH proton radiation in pet dogs with naturally occurring head and neck tumors, the work the fund supports.¹

Human head and neck cancerPenn Medicine, Abramson Cancer Center

In 2026, Penn opened the first U.S. human trial of conformal FLASH proton therapy, building directly on the canine trial.¹

Why it matters for nasal tumors

Radiation is the current standard of care. FLASH aims to make it safer and stronger at the same time.

Other frontier research

Where the field is heading

Studies in ultrasound and electric pulse therapy are making headway in destroying tumors without the need for invasive surgery.

Histotripsy

Mechanical cavitation

Energy: Focused ultrasound pulses
Effect: Non-thermal, mechanical
Stage: Veterinary trials; FDA-cleared for human liver tumors

Short, intense pulses of focused ultrasound form a cloud of microbubbles inside the tumor. As they expand and collapse, they break tumor tissue down to cellular debris, without heat or incisions.

Veterinary trials

Canine osteosarcomaVirginia Tech

Histotripsy is being tested as a bone-sparing, limb-salvage treatment for bone cancer, which traditionally requires amputation. Trials show sound waves can break down the bone tumor precisely without weakening healthy bone.^1,2,3,4

Canine oral tumorsVirginia Tech

Custom-mapped histotripsy protocols are being evaluated against hard-to-reach oral cancers that surgery can't remove cleanly.^1,2

Equine sarcoidsWorld-first trial

Equine veterinarians are using histotripsy to destroy stubborn skin tumors in horses that often recur after surgery.¹

Why it matters for nasal tumors

Oral tumor work is the closest analog: complex anatomy, bone involvement and nearby critical structures. Air in the nasal cavity blocks ultrasound, so adapting histotripsy to the nose is an open research question.

HIFU

High-intensity focused ultrasound

Energy: Focused ultrasound
Effect: Thermal ablation
Stage: Veterinary trials

HIFU concentrates ultrasound energy to a small focal point, heating and destroying tumor tissue there while the tissue the beam passes through stays largely unharmed.

Veterinary trials

Canine lymphomaPurdue University, Werling Comparative Oncology Research Center

Researchers are combining thermal HIFU with standard chemotherapy. Heating just part of a cancerous lymph node before chemo starts is meant to crack the tumor open and wake up the dog's immune system to clear the remaining cancer.^1,2

Why it matters for nasal tumors

The immune "priming" strategy tested here could pair with radiation, the standard nasal tumor treatment.

SDT

Sonodynamic therapy

Energy: Low-intensity focused ultrasound
Effect: Activates a sound-sensitive drug
Stage: Veterinary trials

A drug that is harmless on its own is given first and gathers in the tumor. Gentle focused ultrasound then activates it, triggering cancer cell death only where the sound is aimed.

Veterinary trials

Canine mast cell tumorsUT Southwestern Medical Center

Low-intensity focused ultrasound is paired with ultrasound-sensitive drugs to trigger targeted cell death in aggressive canine skin tumors, without the whole-body side effects of traditional chemotherapy.¹

Why it matters for nasal tumors

A treatment that only activates inside the tumor is appealing for a cancer that sits beside the eyes and brain.

H-FIRE

High-frequency irreversible electroporation & IRE

Energy: Short electrical pulses
Effect: Non-thermal; opens pores in cell membranes
Stage: Veterinary trials

Probes placed in the tumor deliver very short electrical pulses that punch microscopic holes in cell membranes, so tumor cells die. Because it doesn't rely on heat, it can work next to blood vessels and other delicate structures. H-FIRE is a high-frequency version, developed at Virginia Tech, that avoids the muscle contractions earlier IRE caused.

Veterinary trials

Canine primary lung tumorsVirginia Tech

Lungs are full of air and very sensitive, so heat ablation or surgery carries major risks. Trials are testing H-FIRE to treat lung tumors through the skin under CT guidance.¹

Canine liver cancer (hepatocellular carcinoma)Purdue University

H-FIRE is being used against liver tumors that can't be removed surgically or sit too close to critical blood vessels.¹

Why it matters for nasal tumors

Precise, heat-free ablation near critical structures is exactly what the nasal cavity demands. Electroporation has also been studied in canine brain tumors, near the same anatomy.

BWL

Burst wave lithotripsy

Energy: Bursts of focused ultrasound
Effect: Fragments hard material
Stage: Human use for kidney stones; tumor use is exploratory

BWL sends short bursts of focused ultrasound through the body to break up hard structures. It was developed at the University of Washington to fragment kidney stones without surgery or anesthesia in some patients.

There are no veterinary tumor trials yet. Researchers are interested in whether its precise mechanical effects could be tuned for tissue such as tumor-invaded bone. We include it because the fund supports early, high-risk ideas as well as proven ones.

Why it matters for nasal tumors

Nasal adenocarcinoma destroys and remodels bone. Technologies built to act on hard tissue may one day help, but this is a long-horizon idea.

An unexpected benefit

The abscopal effect

One of the most exciting findings across these veterinary trials is immune activation.

When veterinary oncologists use histotripsy or H-FIRE to break apart a primary tumor, the debris left behind acts like a biological flare. The dog's immune system recognizes the cancer proteins and, in some cases, begins attacking cancer cells that have spread elsewhere in the body.

Researchers are now studying how often this happens and how to make it reliable, including by combining ablation with radiation or immunotherapy.

Read the research →Support FLASH research →