Jeff Elias, MD
An article in Bloomberg Businessweek* featured the Focused Ultrasound Foundation, a non-profit started in 2006 by Neal Kassell, MD, former professor and co-chair of the Department of Neurosurgery. Jeff Elias, MD, a neurosurgeon who trained under Dr. Kassell, was highlighted in the article, which was one of UVA Health’s top media stories last week.
In the article, the author Noah Buhayar discusses how his own brain tumor required invasive brain surgery and months of recovery that was “rocky at times.” Later, Buhayar interviewed Dr. Kassell about the potential for using focused ultrasound, as opposed to surgery, to treat tumors like his. According to the article, Dr. Kassell hopes in as little as five years focused ultrasound may be an option to address tumors in a “totally noninvasive, outpatient” procedure that takes less than half an hour.
At UVA, Dr. Elias has had considerable success using focused ultrasound for treating essential tremor, which formerly required surgical intervention. Since Dr. Elias and his colleague, Shayan Moosa, MD, started using focused ultrasound to treat essential tremor patients, they’ve been able to help more people, about 150 annually as compared to only 10 patients each year with surgery, as reported in the Bloomberg article.
UVA Health was one of the earliest pioneers in the field of focused ultrasound. Research by Dr. Elias and colleagues has already paved the way for the federal Food and Drug Administration’s approval of the technology to treat Parkinson’s disease symptoms and essential tremor, a common movement disorder. UVA’s expertise with the technology has led to a robust research program that is examining the use of focused ultrasound to treat many conditions, including cancer.
The tremendous promise of focused ultrasound prompted UVA Health and the Charlottesville-based Focused Ultrasound Foundation to launch the Focused Ultrasound Cancer Immunotherapy Center, the world’s first center dedicated specifically to advancing a focused ultrasound and cancer immunotherapy treatment approach that could revolutionize cancer care for the 21st century.
Learn more about focused ultrasound at UVA.
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Filed Under: Research