$5.5 million federal grant boosts UVA scientists’ unique cancer research

Could ultrasound technology help better target cancer treatments? University of Virginia researcher Natasha Sheybani recently received a $5.5 million dollar grant that can help her, and her team, answer that question. 

As the research director at UVA’s Focused Ultrasound Cancer Immunotherapy Center, the grant from the federal Department of Defense will help support Sheybani and her team’s research into the potential of focused ultrasound to improve the safety and precision of immunotherapy drugs for cancer patients. 

While Sheybani said medical research professionals often focus intensely on the science of their work, she feels that physical and emotional insights from cancer patients and their loved ones will also be crucial to her team as they dig into the nitty gritty of the science. 

“Something we’re trying to do consciously in my lab is pulling in the voices of people who have themselves been diagnosed with cancer, those who have survived or those who have been caregivers to others who understand the (burdens of the disease),” Sheybani said. “I think those voices are so important, because they really do end up kind of dictating what is necessary, what is realistic, what is worthwhile.”

While ultrasound technology may be able to help more effectively target cancer, resulting in more positive survival prognoses, Sheybani also emphasized how it can lessen the “harsh” effects treatment can have on people overall. 

For metastatic breast cancer in particular, only about a third of patients live past five years from their diagnosis and it is incurable. But treatments like chemotherapy, radiation and surgeries can help slow its spread. For chemo and radiation, there’s also heightened risks of targeting healthy tissue. 

“Breast cancer therapies are still very harsh and we leave a lot of room for off-target toxicity and impacts that can have downstream impact on long-term quality of life,” Sheybani said.  

That’s where ultrasound technology comes in. From heating up cancerous cells to break them down to sending sonic cues that can help medications penetrate better, Sheybani’s work at UVA builds on prior related research she has been a part of. 

She added that her team also plans to focus on brain cancers and pancreatic cancers — two organs that can be challenging to treat. For the brain in particular, she said a membrane known as the blood-brain barrier makes it difficult for therapeutic drugs to enter in sufficient quantities. And of course, brain surgeries come with risks and duress on the body. Ultrasound could  bolster treatments and in some cases help to avoid surgery, she said. 

“You’re talking about basically an incisionless procedure, which you can kind of directly juxtapose with how invasive and cumbersome things like an open surgery might be,” Sheybani explained. 

An alum of Virginia Commonwealth University and UVA, Sheybani went on to work on her post-doctoral research at Stanford before being recruited back to her alma mater. It’s a happy homecoming, she said, as she aspires to improve cancer treatments and the patient experience. 

“I’ve had the good fortune in my career to kind of get in on the ground floor of … these developments that have definitely allowed me to stay in this community of people who are really dedicated to advancing this topic in a way that we hope will be really meaningful for patient outcomes,” Sheybani said.