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Esophageal Tumors

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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 for this condition has been researched in clinical trials. However, at this time, we are not aware of any open clinical trials.

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 tumors of the esophagus. 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 several therapeutic effects that are being evaluated. One mechanism is the production of precise ablation (thermal destruction of tissue) with the goal of either completely or partially destroying the tumor tissue. Partial treatment is believed to stimulate the patient’s immune response, which may have a broader impact. Another mechanism of action is to pre-treat the tumor with pulsed focused ultrasound which may enable improved therapeutic absorption.

Advantages
The primary option for treatment of esophageal tumors is invasive surgery, although radiation, chemotherapy or other pharmaceuticals may also be used.

For certain patients, focused ultrasound could provide a noninvasive alternative to surgery with less risk of complications – like surgical wound healing or infection – at a lower cost. Focused ultrasound can reach the desired target without damaging surrounding tissue, and it could also enhance the chemotherapy dose for the target, with less impact to the rest of the patient. It can also be repeated, if necessary.

Clinical Trials

At the present time, there are no clinical trials recruiting patients for focused ultrasound treatment of esophageal cancer.

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/. 

Regulatory Approval and Reimbursement

Focused ultrasound treatment for head and neck tumors is not yet approved by regulatory bodies or covered by medical insurance companies.

Notable Papers

Palmeri ML, Frinkley KD, Zhai L, Gottfried M, Bentley RC, Ludwig K, Nightingale KR. Acoustic radiation force impulse (ARFI) imaging of the gastrointestinal tract. Ultrason Imaging. 2005 Apr;27(2):75-88. doi: 10.1177/016173460502700202.

Click here for additional references from PubMed.