Matthew Bucknor, MD's interest in focused ultrasound developed during his radiology residency at UCSF when Fergus Coakley, MD (former faculty and current chair of radiology at Oregon Health Sciences University) brought the technology here. At that time, Dr. Bucknor was unsure if he wanted to pursue a career in academic medicine, but upon realizing the potential of this technology, he knew that he wanted to help drive its advancement moving forward. Skip ahead just a few years, and Dr. Bucknor is a lead radiologist at the UC San Francisco Department of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging in performing focused ultrasound treatments.
As a musculoskeletal radiologist, Dr. Bucknor is interested in potential musculoskeletal applications of focused ultrasound. These include treatment of benign and malignant tumors of bone and soft tissue. He is a member of the UCSF Musculoskeletal Research Group and Musculoskeletal Quantitative Imaging Research (MQIR) interdisciplinary research group at UCSF. "The technology is ideal for treating the musculoskeletal system because disease processes within muscles and bones can be easily targeted and generally don't move (with the exception of the ribs)," said Dr. Bucknor in an interview with the Focused Ultrasound Foundation.
As a clinical researcher, Dr. Bucknor is also interested in oncology, and has thus far made significant contributions in the field of focused ultrasound cancer therapy beyond the musculoskeletal system. In his work, he is focused on research that directly impacts the care of cancer patients in the near term. This includes focused ultrasound to promote anti-tumor immune response effects and a trial of pre-operative MR-guided focused ultrasound for patients with soft tissue sarcomas.