Kush Savsani is the definition of VCU’s “Every Ram’s a Researcher” initiative. 

In the gap years between finishing as a VCU Honors College biology undergrad and starting at the VCU School of Medicine, Savsani began working with VCU Health Hume-Lee Transplant Center robotics surgeon Seung Duk Lee, M.D., Ph.D. There, Savsani researched hepatocellular carcinoma or HCC, one of the most aggressive forms of liver cancer and the fifth-most prevalent cancer in the world. 

In its early stage, HCC is treated through transplant or liver resection. But in later stages, chemotherapy is required. Specifically: transarterial chemoembolization, or TACE. The minimally invasive procedure delivers chemo drugs to the tumor through a catheter in the groin, depleting cancer cells of blood, oxygen and nutrients. 

“Those treatments are somewhat effective, but usually they would require a sort of re-treatment, because the cancer recurs,” he says. 

So the 22-year-old, under Lee’s leadership, began to look into “a different style of treatment” for liver cancer that could be used in conjunction with traditional means, leading to greater efficacy. 

That treatment: Light. 

Targeted photodynamic therapy, or PDT, works by injecting a well-known photosensitizer called indocyanine green (ICG) into the patient, which accumulates in cancerous liver cells. While traditionally only used for imaging, Lee and Savsani realized that when ICG is exposed to a specific wavelength of light, the cancer cells die while leaving healthy tissue unharmed. 

“We attack disease on two fronts,” Savsani says. “We can administer the light at the same time as transarterial chemoembolization while we still have arterial access. It can increase the treatability of patients.” 

Savsani, who also holds an MBA, emphasizes that the work is multidisciplinary: “We have a big group of people— liver transplant surgeons, basic science researchers, engineers, vascular surgeons and interventional radiologists—all working together to make this possible,” he says. 

His work has been backed by the VCU Commercialization Fund, overseen by VCU TechTransfer and Ventures and the Office of the Vice President for Research and Innovation. The team’s current focus is testing and improving the product to eventually move into clinical trials. 

“VCU is very unique,” he says. “Because we have researchers and clinicians working hand-in-hand, we’re able to do pretty unique research that maybe other centers aren’t able to. Without the support from the community, VCU TechTransfer and administrative leaders, we wouldn’t have been able to get this far.”