A horse named Pea is first to test focused ultrasound treatment of skin tumors called sarcoids

A team of engineers and veterinarians are working together to develop a wearable device that would allow histotripsy to be performed safely on horses.

A new clinical trial targeting sarcoids — the most common and persistent equine skin tumor — could advance noninvasive tumor therapies for both animals and people.

There is no “one-fix-for-all” solution for sarcoids, said Sophie Bogers, an assistant professor of large animal surgery.

Many of them require chemotherapy or invasive surgery.

Elsewhere on the Virginia Tech campus, in biomedical engineer Eli Vlaisavljevich's lab, a colleague has what may be that better solution: A technology called histotripsy that uses focused ultrasound to produce a bubble cloud that can break down tumor tissue.

This spring, their system got its first real test on a horse named Pea, a 9-year-old Hanoverian mare who had a tumor on her belly.

"She was really good about it," said Bogers, who led Pea's treatment.

"She just stood there, was very happy.

She didn't seem to feel or dislike the histotripsy." Pea's case was the first live test in a Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine clinical trial trying to answer whether this sound-wave technology could treat sarcoids, the most common and hardest-to-beat skin tumor in horses.

Researchers don't yet know whether histotripsy can reliably keep a sarcoid from coming back, but they do know that at least one horse can tolerate the treatment standing and awake, with no apparent ill effects.

Is a fibroblastic or nodular-type sarcoid (not occult/ flat); and Hasn't been treated in the past six months, or has recurred following treatment.

The report adds to ongoing university-led research relevant to veterinary medicine, animal health, and clinical decision-making.

university website: Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine