Paul Lyon, FRCR, DPhil, MRes, MSc, BSc, PGDip is the associate clinical director of the high-intensity focused ultrasound unit at the Oxford University Hospitals National Health Service (NHS) Foundation Trust and co-director of the Focused Ultrasound Centre of Excellence at the University of Oxford. He has more than a decade of clinical and preclinical research experience in therapeutic ultrasound and its applications. He delivered the first clinical trial to demonstrate safety and efficacy of the use of focused ultrasound to facilitate targeted drug delivery to solid tumours (TARDOX Study, Lancet Oncology).
Dr. Lyon is also a consultant radiologist who performs minimally invasive and noninvasive image-guided tumour ablation procedures such as microwave, cryoablation, and therapeutic ultrasound for cancer patients at the Churchill Hospital, Oxford.
He is leading the UK’s first National Thermal Ablation Registry (TARGET-UK) and the SarcAblate study exploring the use of focused ultrasound to treat soft tissue sarcoma and desmoid tumours.
Learn more about Dr. Lyon’s work and how he is advancing the field of focused ultrasound.
When and how did you become interested in focused ultrasound?
I came to Oxford in 2016 to lead a first-in-man study of focused ultrasound–mediated drug delivery, as part of a clinical DPhil programme with close links to the Institute of Biomedical Engineering, University of Oxford. As this time, I also became involved with the clinical high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) service in Oxford treating patients with uterine fibroids.
What are your areas of interest in focused ultrasound?
My major research area is in the treatment of cancer patients with locally directed therapies, and I continue to work on developing clinical trials that apply focused ultrasound for treating oncology patients. I am interested in developing a better understanding of how focused ultrasound may promote beneficial changes in the immune system and if it can be used in combination with systemic therapies for patient benefit.
What mechanisms and clinical indications do you study?
I research a range of focused ultrasound regimes for cancer patients, which may be from higher powered regimes, including HIFU thermal ablation, lower powered and non-thermal modalities – including cavitation and hyperthermia – for drug delivery, and emerging histotripsy. This complements my role within NHS as a radiology consultant performing microwave ablation for lung and liver cancers and cryotherapy for kidney cancers.
What is the goal of your work?
My ultimate goal is to continue world-class research in focused ultrasound for the long-term benefit of cancer patients with unmet need. This very special group of patients deserves the best treatments.
What are your funding sources?
My research is currently funded by Sarcoma UK and the UK Focused Ultrasound Foundation.
Research Details
Who are your internal collaborators?
I work with a variety of clinical and non-clinical researchers forming a highly multidisciplinary team, including, but in no way limited to, Prof. Feng Wu, Prof. David Cranston, Prof. Constantin Coussios, Prof. Michael Gray, Mr. Srikanth Reddy, Mr. Keaton Jones, Prof. Mark Middleton, Prof. Rachel Kerr, and Prof. Fergus Gleeson.
Who are your external collaborators?
Amongst several other external collaborators, I work with Prof. Tze Min Wah at Leeds Institute of Medical Research at St James’s as a close collaborator both in the world of thermal ablation and focused ultrasound clinical trial development.
What are your greatest achievements?
Other than convincing my wonderful wife Caroline to marry me, one of my greatest achievements was publishing a very full clinical DPhil with Nuffield Department of Surgical Sciences, University of Oxford, whilst juggling a newborn baby and a new role as academic clinical fellow in Radiology in Oxford.
What do you see as impediments to your success?
I am involved in several different focused ultrasound–related projects, so working full time for the NHS and having only one day of dedicated academic time is limiting with regards to all the input I would like to give. This said, it is a wonderful privilege to work at the forefront of this exciting clinical research including collaborative trial design and delivery, and supervision of talented DPhil students.
Has the Focused Ultrasound Foundation played a role in your work?
The Foundation has played a key role in my work and has generously funded me for one day of academic work per week up to now. In addition, the Foundation has funded part of the work for my first DPhil student (Dr. Megan Bradbury), involving spatial transcriptomics of post-HIFU treated tumours, which was integral to her DPhil and will soon be presented and published.
Tell us about a significant moment in your research.
As clinical research fellow, it was a real privilege to deliver the TARDOX trial with supervision and input from several eminent professors in Oxford. I recall looking down a microscope at small colorectal tumour samples treated with focused ultrasound hyperthermia in the presence of circulating ThermoDox®, and the excitement of seeing unmixed high fluorescence signal which was highly specific for the drug (doxorubicin). This showed for the first time clinically, that we had been able to release drug to a liver tumour in a highly targeted manner, completely noninvasively.
What comes next?
As I transition to becoming the HIFU Clinical Director in Oxford, I hope to expand the team to enable us to offer a robust routine NHS HIFU service for gynecology indications. In terms of future academic progression, I hope to be at the forefront of the exciting scientific progress in pushing forward oncological indications for focused ultrasound. I would like to continue my exciting journey by developing oncological trials in focused ultrasound-targeted drug delivery, using the technology in combination with immunotherapies and potentially expand into histotripsy.
Past coverage
The Focused Ultrasound Foundation Designates the University of Oxford as a Center of Excellence October 2025
Oxford Named Focused Ultrasound Centre of Excellence | NHS Oxford University Hospitals October 2025
University of Oxford Named Focused Ultrasound Centre of Excellence | Institute of Biomedical Engineering at Oxford October 2025
Focused Ultrasound for Sarcomas: New Review Now Available September 2025
Clinical Trial Results: Focused Ultrasound Helps Chemotherapy Reach Liver Tumors July 2018
Key Focused Ultrasound Publications
Chetan M, et al., Lyon P, High-intensity Focused Ultrasound treatment of unresectable soft tissue sarcoma and desmoid tumours – a systematic review. Clinical Radiology 2025 Aug;87:106977
Lyon P et al. Ultrasound-guided High Intensity Focused Ultrasound Ablation for Symptomatic Uterine Fibroids: A Preliminary Clinical Experience. European Journal of Ultrasound, April 2019. (PMID: 31238385).
Lyon P et al. Safety and feasibility of ultrasound-triggered targeted drug delivery of doxorubicin from thermosensitive liposomes in liver tumours (TARDOX): a single-centre, open-label, phase 1 trial. Lancet Oncology, July 2018. (PMID: 30001990)