Surgical Oncology and Multidisciplinary Cancer Treatment

Having spent his childhood in the company of a wide variety of animals, Will fulfilled a lifelong dream of becoming a small animal veterinarian in 2000 when he graduated from Auburn University’s College of Veterinary Medicine. He was particularly captivated by his patients with cancer and decided to pursue this interest further. In 2002, he returned to school, receiving an MD degree from the University of Vermont. After completing a Orthopaedic Surgery residency at Duke University and a Surgical Oncology fellowship at the University of Toronto, he is currently the Frank Bassett Associate Professor of Orthopaedic Oncology at Duke University with an adjunct appointment at the North Carolina State College of Veterinary Medicine. He continues to care for both human and animal cancer patietns. As an Orthopaedic Oncologist, he specializes in preserving and reconstructing limbs that have been threatened by cancer. Given his dual roles in human and animal health, Will is committed to using a One Medicine approach to solving the terrible problem that cancer presents to all of us, whether we walk on two legs or four. His Comparative Oncology Laboratory at Duke attempts to identify common elements between types of cancer across different species.

Dr. Lynn Griffin is a staff radiologist at the VCA Central Victoria Veterinary Hospital as well as an affiliate professor of radiology at the Colorado State University Veterinary Teaching Hospital and owner of a teleradiology service, Advanced Animal Cancer Imaging LLC. She is double boarded in both radiation oncology and radiology and has a strong research focus on oncologic imaging, in particular PET/CT. Dr. Griffin graduated from the Ontario Veterinary College before going on to work in general practice as a mixed animal practitioner, small animal veterinarian and emergency practitioner before heading back to Colorado State University in 2010 where she completed both of her residencies then stayed on as faculty prior to moving to Victoria, British Columbia in the fall of 2022.

I am an anatomic pathologist and assistant professor at Colorado State University. Most of my diagnostic service and my expertise is in canine and feline neoplasia with special training in lymphoproliferative diseases. After veterinary school I completed an anatomic pathology residency and master’s degree at Oregon State University. Following my residency, I completed a PhD with Dr. Anne Avery at the Clinical Hematopathology Laboratory at Colorado State University. Since 2019, I have been a diagnostic pathologist at the CSU veterinary diagnostic laboratory with collaboration and research support for the CSU clinical hematopathology laboratory, the Flint Animal Cancer Center and the Morris Animal Foundation Golden Retriever Lifetime study.

Dr. Janssens is an assistant professor of surgical oncology at the Flint Animal Cancer Center, Colorado State University (CSU) and completed an internship and surgical residency at the University of Liverpool in the UK. He completed a fellowship in surgical oncology at CSU in 2017 and was on the faculty at Texas A&M University before moving back to CSU at the end of 2020. He is a Diplomate of European College of Veterinary Surgeons and a Recognized Specialist in Surgery Oncology by the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons.

Dr. Mickelson is currently an assistant professor in small animal surgical oncology at the University of Missouri. She received a bachelor's degree in biology followed by her DVM from the University of Wisconsin-Madison (2013). She completed a small animal rotating internship at North Carolina State University (2014) and returned to the University of Wisconsin-Madison for a small animal surgery residency (2017). She then completed a surgical oncology fellowship at Colorado State University in the Flint Animal Cancer Center (2018) and is an ACVS Fellow, Surgical Oncology. She was an assistant professor in small animal soft tissue surgery at Iowa State prior to joining Mizzou in 2020. Her research interests include clinical and translational oncology, clinical education, and sentinel lymph node mapping.

A native of Colorado, Dr. Kim Selting completed her undergraduate and veterinary studies at Colorado State University (CSU). Following a one year rotating small animal internship in medicine and surgery at the Animal Medical Center in New York City, she spent 4 years in private practice in St. Louis, MO. She then returned to the CSU Animal Cancer Center for a residency to become board-certified by the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine in the specialty of medical Oncology. Dr. Selting then joined the faculty at the University of Missouri from 2002-2017. In 2013, she completed a non-traditional residency in Radiation Oncology and achieved board certification by the American College of Veterinary Radiology. In July 2017, Dr. Selting accepted a position as Associate Professor at the University of Illinois to develop a radiation therapy program. Current research interests include biomarkers of cancer and toxicity of cancer treatment, novel anticancer drugs, and effects of radiation dose rate modifications on the tumor microenvironment. Dr. Selting is the Past President of the Veterinary Cancer Society (VCS), the past President of the Veterinary Cooperative Oncology Group and past member-at-large for VCS, and past Chair of the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine (ACVIM) Oncology Certifying Examination Committee. Dr. Selting currently serves as the President-Elect for the American College of Veterinary Radiology (Radiation Oncology subspecialty, ACVR-RO), and is on the examination committee for ACVR-RO.

I am a veterinary surgical oncologist and an immunologist. I believe in the strength of a One Health approach to comparative oncology research to benefit both veterinary and human patients with cancer. The overall goal of my research is to improve cancer outcomes for veterinary and human patients via tumor ablation and immunotherapy, especially for patients with osteosarcoma and lung tumors. Specifically, my research team investigates the use of two non-thermal tumor ablation techniques – histotripsy and high-frequency irreversible electroporation (H-FIRE). My research focuses on developing histotripsy as a tumor ablation modality for the primary tumor in osteosarcoma, and on developing H-FIRE as a tumor ablation modality for metastatic tumors in osteosarcoma and primary lung tumors. Additionally, my research also evaluates the immune response after histotripsy and H-FIRE ablation of tumors. My research team utilizes veterinary clinical trials, preclinical models and in-vitro systems to explore the ablative and immunomodulatory effects of histotripsy and H-FIRE. https://vetmed.vt.edu/people/f... https://vetmed.vt.edu/research...