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 breast cancer. This novel technology focuses beams of ultrasound energy precisely and accurately on targets in the body without damaging surrounding normal tissue.
How it Works
Where the beams converge, focused ultrasound produces several therapeutic effects that are being evaluated. One mechanism is precise ablation (thermal destruction of tissue). The goal could be complete ablation of the cancer, or it can be done partially. Partial ablation may help awaken the immune system for a more generalized response. A second mechanism is to promote the targeted release of therapeutic treatments in the region of the tumor.
Advantages
Current treatment options for breast cancer include combinations of surgery, radiation, chemotherapy, hormone therapy or targeted drug therapies.
Focused ultrasound – used alone and in combination with other therapies – is being investigated to treat breast cancer.
Potential advantages as compared to current treatments:
- Focused ultrasound is noninvasive and therefore has reduced risk for infection and blood clots, and potential for shorter recovery time.
- Precise targeting minimizes damage to non-targeted healthy tissue.
- No ionizing radiation, enabling repeat treatment if necessary.
- Treatment can be a complement to drug therapy, enabling enhanced delivery of chemotherapy or immunotherapy to tumors.
- May potentially induce an anti-tumor immune response.
Clinical Trials
A clinical trial in Canada is combining the use of radiation therapy with focused ultrasound for patients with advanced breast cancer.
A clinical trial in New York is treating benign and stage 1 malignant breast tumors.
A clinical trial is evaluating the use of high-intensity focused ultrasound combined with gemcitabine in patients with stage I-III breast cancer at the University of Virginia. This is a treatment followed by surgical resection.
A clinical trial in Utah is recruiting patients with breast cancer for focused ultrasound treatment. This is a treatment followed by surgical resection.
A clinical trial for patients with breast cancer that has metastasized to their brain has begun enrolling patients in Canada. The team will use focused ultrasound to open the blood brain barrier to allow therapeutic medications to more effectively reach the tumor in their brain. This study is only open to Canadian citizens. A summary of the first four patients has been published.
A clinical trial in China is using high intensity focused ultrasound for treatment of breast cancer patients.
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 >
Regulatory Approval and Reimbursement
The Model JC system manufactured by Chongqing Haifu has been approved in Europe, Russia, and China treatment of breast cancer.
Focused ultrasound treatment for patients with breast cancer is not universally reimbursed by medical insurers.
Preclinical Laboratory Studies
Preclinical studies are underway to investigate the use of non-ablation mechanisms of focused ultrasound in the treatment of breast cancer. Examples of these studies include:
- Focused ultrasound to induce an immune response that could be combined with immunotherapeutics (e.g., checkpoint inhibitors) to treat both local and systemic disease.
- Focused ultrasound to enable targeted delivery and/or activation of drugs via carrier vehicles (e.g., microbubbles, nanoparticles, liposomes) to enable delivery of high concentrations in the tumor with minimal systemic side effects.
Additional Resources
American Cancer Society
National Cancer Institute
Blog: Beating Breast Cancer – My Hope for Focused Ultrasound
Help us revolutionize treatment for breast cancer by funding studies that will develop strategies for both early-and later-stage disease.
See the case statement >
Notable Papers
Singh A, Adams-Tew S, Johnson S, Odeen H, Shea J, Johnson A, Day L, Pessin A, Payne A, Joshi S. Treatment efficacy prediction of focused ultrasound therapies using multi-parametric magnetic resonance imaging. Cancer Prev Detect Interv (2024). 2025;15199:190-199. doi: 10.1007/978-3-031-73376-5_18. Epub 2024 Oct 9. PMID: 39802501
Nelson CK, Kline M, Payne A, Dillon CR. Computational predictions of magnetic resonance acoustic radiation force imaging for breast cancer focused ultrasound therapy. Int J Hyperthermia. 2025 Dec;42(1):2452927. doi: 10.1080/02656736.2025.2452927. Epub 2025 Jan 22. PMID: 39842813
Tang S, McGinnis R, Cao Z, Baker JR Jr, Xu Z, Wang S. Ultrasound-Guided Histotripsy Triggers the Release of Tumor-Associated Antigens from Breast Cancers. Cancers (Basel). 2025 Jan 8;17(2):183. doi: 10.3390/cancers17020183. PMID: 39857965
Liu Y, Hossain MM, Li XJ, Konofagou EE. Amplitude-Modulation Frequency Optimization for Enhancing Harmonic Motion Imaging Performance of Breast Tumors in the Clinic. Ultrasound Med Biol. 2025 Jan;51(1):169-179. doi: 10.1016/j.ultrasmedbio.2024.09.021. Epub 2024 Oct 19. PMID: 39428259
Murad HY, Sabol RA, Nyiramana J, Twizeyimana A, Bortz EP, Matossian MD, Hong S, Kelly CA, Burow ME, Bunnell BA, Khismatullin DB. Mechanical Disruption by Focused Ultrasound Re-sensitizes ER+ Breast Cancer Cells to Hormone Therapy. Ultrasound Med Biol. 2024 Dec;50(12):1885-1892. doi: 10.1016/j.ultrasmedbio.2024.08.015. Epub 2024 Sep 14. PMID: 39277462
DeWitt M, Demir ZEF, Sherlock T, Brenin DR, Sheybani ND. MR Imaging-Guided Focused Ultrasound for Breast Tumors. Magn Reson Imaging Clin N Am. 2024 Nov;32(4):593-613. doi: 10.1016/j.mric.2024.04.004. Epub 2024 May 16. PMID: 39322350
Rahpeima R, Lin CA. A comprehensive numerical procedure for high-intensity focused ultrasound ablation of breast tumour on an anatomically realistic breast phantom. PLoS One. 2024 Oct 1;19(10):e0310899. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0310899. eCollection 2024. PMID: 39352893
Murad HY, Sabol RA, Nyiramana J, Twizeyimana A, Bortz EP, Matossian MD, Hong S, Kelly CA, Burow ME, Bunnell BA, Khismatullin DB. Mechanical Disruption by Focused Ultrasound Re-sensitizes ER+ Breast Cancer Cells to Hormone Therapy. Ultrasound Med Biol. 2024 Sep 13:S0301-5629(24)00323-5. doi: 10.1016/j.ultrasmedbio.2024.08.015. PMID: 39277462
DeWitt M, Demir ZEF, Sherlock T, Brenin DR, Sheybani ND. MR Imaging-Guided Focused Ultrasound for Breast Tumors. Magn Reson Imaging Clin N Am. 2024 Nov;32(4):593-613. doi: 10.1016/j.mric.2024.04.004. Epub 2024 May 16. PMID: 39322350
Kaplińska-Kłosiewicz PM, Fura Ł, Kujawska T, Andrzejewski K, Kaczyńska K, Strzemecki D, Sulejczak M, Chrapusta SJ, Macias M, Sulejczak D. Study of Biological Effects Induced in Solid Tumors by Shortened-Duration Thermal Ablation Using High-Intensity Focused Ultrasound. Cancers (Basel). 2024 Aug 14;16(16):2846. doi: 10.3390/cancers16162846. PMID: 39199617
Liu Y, Tang R, Cao Y, Wu N, Qin Q, Chen Y, Wei X, Ren J, Sun Y, Zhou H, Zhou Y, Li P. LIFU/MMP-2 dual-responsive release of repurposed drug disulfiram from nanodroplets for inhibiting vasculogenic mimicry and lung metastasis in triple-negative breast cancer. J Nanobiotechnology. 2024 Apr 25;22(1):209. doi: 10.1186/s12951-024-02492-7. PMID: 38664830
Yu X, Li X, Chen Q, Wang S, Xu R, He Y, Qin X, Zhang J, Yang W, Shi L, Lu L, Zheng Y, Pang Z, Peng S. High Intensity Focused Ultrasound-Driven Nanomotor for Effective Ferroptosis-Immunotherapy of TNBC. Adv Sci (Weinh). 2024 Feb 11:e2305546. doi: 10.1002/advs.202305546. PMID: 38342612
Click here for additional references from PubMed.
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