Home Diseases and Conditions Bone Metastases 

Bone Metastases 

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Development Stage

Early Stage

Focused ultrasound research is in the laboratory phase and is not yet available for patients.

Clinical Trials

Focused ultrasound for this condition is being researched in clinical trials.

International Approval

Focused ultrasound is approved to treat this condition outside the US. Patients can seek commercial treatment at participating international sites.

FDA Approved

The US Food and Drug Administration has approved focus ultrasound for this condition. Patients can seek commercial treatment at participating sites.

Early Stage

Clinical Trials

International

FDA Approved

Focused ultrasound is approved to treat this condition both within and outside the US. Patients can seek commercial treatment at participating sites. There are also clinical trials that may be of interest to patients.

Focused Ultrasound Therapy

Focused ultrasound is a noninvasive, therapeutic technology with the potential to improve the quality of life and decrease the cost of care for patients with painful metastatic cancer to the bone. This novel technology focuses beams of ultrasound energy precisely and accurately on targets deep in the body without damaging surrounding normal tissue.

How it Works
Where the beams converge, focused ultrasound produces precise ablation (thermal destruction of tissue) of the pain-producing nerves around the cancer metastases without surgery, resulting in a significant reduction in pain.

Advantages
The primary options for treatment of painful bone metastases include radiation and medications. In some cases, surgery is considered.

For certain patients, focused ultrasound could provide a noninvasive, radiation-free alternative to conventional therapy with less risk of complications and lower cost. It is a low-morbidity treatment that allows for a quick return to normal life (usually the next day). A single therapy session can provide rapid and durable resolution of bone metastasis pain, and focused ultrasound pain relief does not have the adverse side effects of pain medications. It can also be repeated, if necessary

Regulatory Approval and Reimbursement

The following geographical regions have one or more focused ultrasound devices approved to treat painful bone metastases: USA (FDA), Europe (CE Mark), Korea (KFDA), Asia, Canada, Israel, India, Latin America and Russia.

Treatments are reimbursed in Italy and Germany. Most major health insurers in the US also cover focused ultrasound for bone metastases. In other countries, coverage may be available on a case-by-case or site basis.

Clinical Trials

There is an international study of focused ultrasound in addition to radiation for bone metastatic disease.

There is a clinical trial in Canada that is treating bone metastasis in children ages 5-17.

The Foundation updates these pages regularly, but with the increasing number of clinical trials, we want to be sure that our audience has the latest information available. Therefore, we also added the website search information for the above trials. If you click here, it will take you to the latest information available from https://www.clinicaltrials.gov/. 

See a list of treatment sites >
See a list of laboratory research sites >

Notable Papers

Hovenier R, Bos C, Boomsma MF, Grüll H, Morganti AG, Verkooijen HM, Verkooijen HM. Interrater Agreement in Assessment of Eligibility for Magnetic Resonance-Guided High Intensity Focused Ultrasound (MR-HIFU) of Patients with Painful Bone Metastases. J Vasc Interv Radiol. 2025 Jan 21:S1051-0443(25)00037-5. doi: 10.1016/j.jvir.2025.01.025. PMID: 39848325 

Yao PF, Hu A, Mansour F, Nadeem I, Jiang Y, Athreya S. Image Guided Energy Ablation for Palliation of Painful Bony Metastases – A Systematic Review. J Vasc Interv Radiol. 2024 May 28:S1051-0443(24)00374-9. doi: 10.1016/j.jvir.2024.05.011. PMID: 38815751 

Yin X, Tang N, Fan X, Wang S, Zhang J, Gu J, Wang H. Mid-term efficacy grading evaluation and predictive factors of magnetic resonance-guided focused ultrasound surgery for painful bone metastases: a multi-center study. Eur Radiol. 2023 Feb;33(2):1465-1474. doi: 10.1007/s00330-022-09118-2. Epub 2022 Sep 8.

Napoli A, De Maio A, Alfieri G, Gasperini C, Scipione R, Campanacci L, Siepe G, De Felice F, Siniscalchi B, Chiurchioni L, Tombolini V, Donati DM, Morganti AG, Ghanouni P, Catalano C, Bazzocchi A. Focused Ultrasound and External Beam Radiation Therapy for Painful Bone Metastases: A Phase II Clinical Trial. Radiology. 2023 Jan 3:211857. doi: 10.1148/radiol.211857. Online ahead of print.

Simões Corrêa Galendi J, Siefen AC, Moretti DM, Yeo SY, Grüll H, Bratke G, Morganti AG, Bazzocchi A, Gasperini C, De Felice F, Blanco Sequeiros R, Huhtala M, Nijholt IM, Boomsma MF, Bos C, Verkooijen HM, Müller D, Stock S. Factors Influencing the Adoption of Magnetic Resonance-Guided High-Intensity Focused Ultrasound for Painful Bone Metastases in Europe, A Group Concept Mapping Study. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2023 Jan 7;20(2):1084. doi: 10.3390/ijerph20021084.

Yeo SY, Bratke G, Grüll H. High Intensity Focused Ultrasound for Treatment of Bone Malignancies-20 Years of History. Cancers (Basel). 2022 Dec 24;15(1):108. doi: 10.3390/cancers15010108.

Slotman DJ, Bartels MMTJ, Ferrer CJ, Bos C, Bartels LW, Boomsma MF, Phernambucq ECJ, Nijholt IM, Morganti AG, Siepe G, Buwenge M, Grüll H, Bratke G, Yeo SY, Blanco Sequeiros R, Minn H, Huhtala M, Napoli A, De Felice F, Catalano C, Bazzocchi A, Gasperini C, Campanacci L, Simões Corrêa Galendi J, Müller D, Braat MNGJA, Moonen C, Verkooijen HM, Verkooijen HM. Focused Ultrasound and RadioTHERapy for non-invasive palliative pain treatment in patients with bone metastasis: a study protocol for the three armed randomized controlled FURTHER trial. Trials. 2022 Dec 29;23(1):1061. doi: 10.1186/s13063-022-06942-1.

Click here for additional references from PubMed.

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