in oncologyThe reference treatment is always to remove the tumor. Surgery, Unfortunately, this is not possible in many situations: the tumor is too large or its position is such that removing it would cause too much damage to the surrounding tissue. In these cases, other treatments are offered – chemotherapy or radiation therapy – either to try to reduce the size of the tumor for later surgery, or to destroy it. But these treatments are not without Side effects And their effectiveness is less than that of surgery.

A promising new method for mechanical destruction of cancer, called histotripsy, was published on March 22, 2022 in the journal Science. cancer, it’s a treat ultrasound Makes it possible to kill a tumor with millimeter precision, without surgery, in a non-invasive way.

Histotripsy, a promising treatment using sound waves

This is a technique that uses ultrasound, such as ultrasound, But these are not exactly the same waves: the waves in histotripsy are of very high amplitude. These cause violent mechanical stresses that break down the structure of cancer cells. Millimeter targeting limits the effect on healthy cells.

Partial destruction is enough

The authors wished to evaluate the effects of partial destruction of tumorby histotripsy in mice, on the order of 50 to 75% liver cancer, The endpoints were tumor progression, overall survival, and incidence of metastases. The results show thatseparating Partial tumors led to total tumor regression in 81% of cases, without resection and without the occurrence of metastases. Ultrasound destroys part of the cancer cells and stimulates the immune system that is responsible for killing the cells, preventing recurrence and the spread of cancer cells that can lead to metastases. In comparison, 100% of untreated mice experienced tumor progression and metastasis. Furthermore, the survival of treated mice was much better than that of untreated mice.

This technology is extremely promising. On the one hand, it is non-invasive, which limits the risks associated with surgery andfainting, On the other hand, partial ablation is sufficient: this is a great advance for tumors that are difficult to access. If at present it has been tested only on liver cancer, it could be beneficial for other locations as well.