October 18, 2023 – The FDA has approved a method that uses sound waves to focus on liver tumors, in accordance with the University of Michigan, where it was developed.
The technique – called histotripsy – may very well be a substitute for surgery, radiation and chemotherapy, which regularly have unintended effects, the university said in a press release Press release.
“A human trial, ongoing since 2021 at the UM Rogel Cancer Center and other sites, has treated patients with primary and metastatic liver tumors using histotripsy and demonstrated that the technology is capable of meeting the primary efficacy and safety goals of the tests,” it said within the press release.
The technique uses targeted ultrasound waves to form microbubbles inside a tumor, the press release says. “The forces created when these bubbles form and collapse cause the mass to break apart, killing tumor cells and leaving debris for the immune system to clear.”
Unlike radiation, which affects every part in its path, histotripsy is less complicated to regulate to make sure it’s hitting the tumor moderately than healthy tissue.
The company HistoSonics can now sell its histotripsy delivery platform for liver treatments to hospitals. The company relies in Minneapolis. The state-of-the-art research and development is situated in Ann Arbor, MI.
“Histotripsy is an exciting new technology that, although in early stages of clinical use, may provide a non-invasive treatment option for patients with liver cancer. “Hopefully it can be combined with systemic therapies to achieve a synergistic therapeutic effect,” said Mishal Mendiratta-Lala, MD, professor of radiology at Michigan Medicine and principal investigator of the study on the university.
In addition, two previous studies in rats suggest that the immune system may learn to acknowledge cancer cells as a threat, attack the unique tumor and activate an immune response to the cancer, the university said.
However, cancer patients mustn’t expect to should stop receiving chemotherapy and radiation immediately. The device is barely approved to be used in liver cancer patients, and its limited availability and high price — about $12,500 per treatment — may lead doctors to stop prescribing it to patients. DailyMail.com reported.