There is no doubt that with the advancement of technology, most cancerous diseases can now be treated effectively but there is still a gap left behind in certain places. One of the major breakthroughs in this line of the profession that we have recently encountered is the upheaval of a new treatment known as “Histotripsy”.
This novel treatment has been tested by the researchers at the University of Michigan to pull out the tumors inside the rat bodies. Implementation of this new technique has been done through the ultrasound waves directly attacking or pointing at tumors without affecting other parts inside the body. And guess what? This procedure has destroyed up to 75% of liver tumor cells inside the rat body, thereby proving the credibility of this treatment. “Histotripsy is a potential approach that can overcome the limits of currently known ablation methods and deliver safe and effective non-invasive liver tumor ablation,” stated by University of Michigan biomedical engineer Tejaswi Worlikar. As a result of the success of this treatment, scientists have also decided to implement this new, emerging, and beneficial treatment for cancer patients in UK and Europe as a first try but they are sure of its success. “We anticipate that our findings from this study will inspire further pre-clinical and clinical histotripsy investigations toward the eventual aim of clinical adoption of histotripsy treatment for patients with liver cancer,” stated researchers from the University of Michigan.
The method works in a very unique yet practical way. The area which contains tumor cells is being put on into the effect of the direct ultrasound waves which can cause oscillations of the tiny particles located there. On reaching the extent of the vibrations, the small particles caused by the ultrasound collapsed, thereby dismantling the tumor particles along with them. This is no doubt an amazing idea to vanish tumor cells without causing any significant harm to the patient like in the case of Chemotherapy or exposure to radiation. This whole process can also be named “Ultrasound cavitation” which first creates a cavity by targeting ultrasound waves and then destroying the tumor cells coupled with the particles. “Even if we don’t attack the entire tumor, we can still cause it to retreat and minimize the chance of future metastasis,” commented Zhen Xu, the study’s contributing scientist.
