Feature
The sound of innovation
Exploring the origins of a new targeted ultrasound technique By Melanie Padgett Powers
A
noninvasive, nonthermal targeted ultrasound technique called “histotripsy” has the
potential to improve and expand cancer treatment administered by interventional radiologists.
Histotripsy could replace minimally invasive ablation therapies, if current clinical trials show the same promising results as animal models and early clinical data, according to Fred T. Lee Jr., MD, chief of abdominal intervention and
32 IRQ | WINTER 2022
the Robert Turrell Professor of Imaging Science at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health.
Histotripsy was invented by biomedical engineers at the University of Michigan led by the late Charles Cain, PhD. Dr. Lee’s team at the University of Wisconsin became involved when the technique was ready to translate from the lab to treatment of abdominal tumors.
About 20 years ago, a pediatric cardiologist told the Michigan
biomedical engineers he would love to have a noninvasive way to create a delicate hole in the upper two heart chambers of his pediatric patients to allow for appropriate oxygen transfer before birth. “That was the motivation, so we started trying to find different methods,” says Zhen Xu, PhD, biomedical engineering professor at the University of Michigan, who was a graduate student working with Dr. Cain.
At a glance
• Histotripsy is a new noninvasive, nonthermal targeted ultrasound technique
• It controls and directs cavitation without damage to surrounding structures
• Trials indicate histotripsy may be highly effective in the cancer space, especially with organs such as the liver, kidney, pancreas and thyroid.
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