The battle against liver cancer welcomes a new ally: histotripsy. With recent FDA approval, this cutting-edge technology, developed at the University of Michigan, could fundamentally change our approach to disease.
A leap forward for oncology medicine
Until now, treatment options for liver cancer have mainly been surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy. Each of these paths has its side effects, often serious. Now, thanks to histotripsy, in human trials since 2021, we may be on the threshold of a medical revolution.
This technology uses targeted sound waves to form real "microbubbles" inside the tumor. The force generated by the formation and collapse of these bubbles disintegrates the tumor mass, leaving the immune system to clean up the debris.
Histotripsy, an intelligent (and non-invasive) bombardment
Histotripsy, as mentioned, works by focusing high-energy acoustic waves to form microscopic bubbles. Unlike radiation therapy, which affects everything in its path, histotripsy is much more selective.
Concentrating the action exclusively on the tumor makes the treatment much less invasive and reduces the risk of damage to surrounding healthy tissue. But it's not just about destroying the tumor: preclinical studies in rodents have shown that with histotripsy the immune system learns to identify tumor cells as threats.
This could not only help fight the initial tumor, but also activate a natural immune response against the cancer.
In first study, even after destroying only 50% to 75% of the tumor volume to the liver by histotripsy, the rats' immune systems were able to eliminate the remainder, with no evidence of recurrence or metastasis in more than 80% of the animals. A second study showed that histotripsy breaks down the “cloak” of the cancer cell wall, revealing proteins that the immune system can use to identify threats, known as antigens.
Two birds with one stone: destroy the tumor and train the immune system to recognize it as an enemy.
A promise is a promise
Histotripsy is still in its early stages of clinical use, but the results are promising and could lead to more effective and less invasive treatments for liver cancer patients. What if this was just the beginning? We may be on the path to therapies that can treat tumors throughout the body and, who knows, maybe even find a general cure.
Okay. Caution. Actually no. FDA approval for histotripsy opens a new chapter in the fight against cancer. Medicine advances, our hope grows: after all, who would have thought that sound waves could have such an important chance?
