Innovative Cancer Treatment Using Ultrasound

Behind me is a machine that destroys tumors using sound waves.

I'm here at the hospital that's done the most of this type of procedure to talk to

the doctor that's done the most of this type of procedure to show you a demo and

exactly how this thing liquefies tumors before your very eyes. Let's get into it.

Histotripsy is a type of cancer treatment that uses targeted ultrasound waves to

destroy tumors in a non invasive way.

And this Edison system made by Histosonics is the

only commercially available histotripsy machine for humans on the market right now.

The patient would be laying on the table.

This device, which is called the water bath,

would be sitting on top of the patient and we would position this over the tumor

to get the patient prepared for the treatment.

The water bath used in histotripsy serves the same purpose as the gel used during

ultrasound imaging,

preventing air pockets which would diffuse the ultrasound waves

and compromise the procedure.

The water being used is regular tap water that's run through

a special filter to remove any air bubbles.

We're in an operating room, but this is actually not a sterile procedure.

So there's no incisions or cuts or anything made on this.

The most invasive portion will be getting an IV so that you can get a sedation,

generally give patients anesthesia as well.

So they're completely asleep so they don't move once the therapy starts.

Way these concentrated ultrasound waves actually destroy tumor cells is by rapidly

expanding and contracting the gases naturally inside them.

This is a mechanical destruction of the tissue rather than a thermal

or radiation based.

So it's more similar to surgery in that sense where it's mechanical.

So it really liquefies this. This treatment is instant.

So as soon as the histotripsy is delivered, the tissue is destroyed.

It's not something we have to wait for down the road.

Dr. Burns showed us some before and after images of patients who had undergone

histotripsy and how the liver tissue healed after the procedure.

Right now, histotripsy is primarily focused on destroying liver tumors,

but there's potential for this technology to be applied to tumors

in other areas of the body as well.

And so this patient had histotripsy delivered to this tumor.

This was her only at the time.

Four months later, we have an MRI showing

that basically that entire lesion is resolved.

We can see very, very small amount.

I have a little defect here,

but just comparing the size from the treatment

all the way down to four months later,

you can see that basically the liver

has basically repaired this entire area and reabsorbed all of this.

Trial to treat primary kidney tumors has just closed,

so we're awaiting those results.

Hopefully that will be available commercially in the next year or so.

There's a trial to treat pancreatic tumors that's underway in Barcelona and Spain,

and that'll be probably coming to the U S. in 2026.

And so histotripsy and histosonics is really a technology platform.

This is a new technology. This is going to expand to every organ in the body.

Looking at future trials,

probably going to come to prostate to treat BPH in large prostate,

potentially prostate cancer,

you can think maybe uterine fibroids,

smaller devices may be able to treat breast tumors,

thyroid nodules, even think about brain tumors.

This is going to expand across the entire body,

cancerous and non cancerous conditions.

Air filled organs like lungs, stomach,

and intestines still propose a challenge due to the fact that ultrasound waves

dissipate in air.

Dr. Burns says a histotripsy procedure

can take about one to three hours depending on how many tumors are being targeted.

Most patients with histotripsy go home a couple hours after the procedure.

It's fairly common to have some pain or discomfort where the treatment goes in.

For smaller treatment, some patients have no symptoms at all.

After the procedure, patients can have some systemic inflammatory symptoms.

That generally starts the day afterwards.

That's fever, a flu like illness,

just the general malaise feeling.

That's very normal. That's the body reacting.

This doesn't replace all surgeries, but there may

be patients that could benefit from this rather than proceeding to a surgery,

which obviously will have more complications. They require hospital stays.

And this procedure can also be repeated many times.

So as long as a patient's liver function is normal,

we can go after multiple tumors either in the same session or over multiple

procedures kind of spread out over weeks or months.

Histotripsy got FDA approval back in October of 2023 and is expanding availability

as more machines are produced.

So there's probably at least a center near you,

if not in your state, at least near. It's available.

It's going to go be in the UK, other areas in Asia.

So this is going to expand globally as time comes.

They just have to build enough units.