TU-CD-210-01: Advances in Focused Ultrasound Brain Therapies

Therapeutic ultrasound technology offers the ability to achieve non-invasive and non-ionizing treatments for soft-tissue disease throughout the body. The bio-effects in tissue caused by ultrasound energy can be thermal in nature (ranging from mild heating to tissue ablation) or can utilize the mechanical energy associated with acoustic waves. Ultrasound energy can be delivered from external devices and focused to a region of a few millimeters in the body. It can also be delivered from body cavities or from devices inserted directly into tissue. One challenge with designing therapeutic ultrasound systems is the need to consider wave propagation and distortion as energy passes through tissues. Consequently, therapeutic ultrasound systems are usually designed to target specific anatomic sites to optimize the delivery of ultrasound to these locations. In this session a number of advanced therapeutic ultrasound delivery systems will be described for the treatment of breast, brain, and prostate tissue. In addition the talks will describe both thermal and non-thermal applications of ultrasound energy. Specific topics addressed in this symposium include: (1) Advances in Focused Ultrasound Brain Therapies, (2) Breast MR guided Focused Ultrasound Hardware Design and Treatment Strategies, (3) The Role of Pulsed Focused Ultrasound in Cancer Therapy, and (4) Sonication and Feedback Control Strategies for MR guided Hyperthermia with the Insightec Prostate Array. Learning Objectives: 1. Understand the technical issues important in the design of therapeutic ultrasound systems 2. Learn about therapeutic ultrasound systems under development for brain, breast and prostate applications 3. Learn about different treatment approaches with therapeutic ultrasound including tissue ablation, hyperthermia, and drug delivery Lili Chen: Funding: FUS Foundation, DOD (PC073127,BC102806) Allison Payne: Funding: NIH (R01EB013433,R01CA178727) Vasant Salgaonkar: Funding: FUS Foundation, NIH (R01CA122276, R01CA111981)