Cervical Tumors

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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 cervical tumors. 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) enabling cervical tumors to be treated without surgery. While significant work has been accomplished, there is still much to be done before this technology will be widely available.

Advantages
The primary options for treatment of cervical tumors include medication and invasive surgery.

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

Clinical Trials

clinical trial is underway in London, United Kingdom that is using focused ultrasound to treat pelvic cancer of many causes, including cervical cancer.

See a full list of cervical tumor clinical trials >

Regulatory Approval and Reimbursement

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

Notable Papers

Yoo SS, Katsarakes P, Gashi J, Kim E, Kim HC, Böhlke M. Non-thermal Acoustic Enhancement of Chemotherapeutic Effects of Cisplatin on Xenografted Cervical Cancer in Mice. Anticancer Res. 2023 Nov;43(11):4793-4800. doi: 10.21873/anticanres.16676. PMID: 37909989 

Wang W, Zhou H, Liu Y, Ren J, Chen L. Changes in cervical cytokine profiles following focused ultrasound treatment for high-risk human papillomavirus infection-related low-grade cervical lesions. Int J Gynaecol Obstet. 2023 Apr 3. doi: 10.1002/ijgo.14768.

Liu Y, Wang W, Zhang M, Qu D, Du C, Chen Y, Reng J, Chen L, Liu S, Yang Y, Zhou H. High-Intensity Focused Ultrasound for Patients With Cervical Intraepithelial Neoplasia 2/3: A Prospective One-Arm Study. Ultrasound Med Biol. 2022 Oct 22:S0301-5629(22)00580-4. doi: 10.1016/j.ultrasmedbio.2022.09.020.

Liu M, Zhang X, Feng Q, Chang S. Cervical high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesion with infertility treated with focused ultrasound: A case report. Asian J Surg. 2021 Oct 7:S1015-9584(21)00566-2. doi: 10.1016/j.asjsur.2021.08.064.

Imseeh G, Giles SL, Taylor A, Brown MRD, Rivens I, Gordon-Williams R, Ter Haar G, deSouza NM. Feasibility of palliating recurrent gynecological tumors with MRGHIFU: comparison of symptom, quality-of-life, and imaging response in intra and extra-pelvic disease. Int J Hyperthermia. 2021;38(1):623-632. doi: 10.1080/02656736.2021.1904154.

Zhu L, Huang Y, Lam D, Gach HM, Zoberi I, Hallahan DE, Grigsby PW, Chen H, Altman MB. Targetability of cervical cancer by magnetic resonance-guided high-intensity focused ultrasound (MRgHIFU)-mediated hyperthermia (HT) for patients receiving radiation therapy. Int J Hyperthermia. 2021;38(1):498-510. doi: 10.1080/02656736.2021.1895330.

Fu Z, Fan Y, Wu C, Yan P, Ye Y, Yang H, Li C. Clinical efficacy and mechanism for focused ultrasound (FUS) in the management of cervical intraepithelial neoplasia 1 (CIN1). Int J Hyperthermia. 2020;37(1):339-345. doi: 10.1080/02656736.2020.1749316.

Jiang J, Xue M. The treatment of cervical pregnancy with high-intensity focused ultrasound followed by suction curettage: report of three cases. Int J Hyperthermia. 2019 Jan 24:1-4. doi: 10.1080/02656736.2018.1563914.

Choe SW, Park K, Park C, Ryu J, Choi H. Combinational light emitting diode-high frequency focused ultrasound treatment for HeLa cell. Comput Assist Surg (Abingdon). 2017 Dec;22(sup1):79-85. doi: 10.1080/24699322.2017.1379158. Epub 2017 Sep 28.

Abel M, Ahmed H, Leen E, Park E, Chen M, Wasan H, Price P, Monzon L, Gedroyc W, Abel P. Ultrasound-guided trans-rectal high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) for advanced cervical cancer ablation is feasible: a case report. J Ther Ultrasound. 2015 Dec 18;3:21. doi: 10.1186/s40349-015-0043-6.

Togtema M, Pichardo S, Jackson R, Lambert PF, Curiel L, Zehbe I. Sonoporation delivery of monoclonal antibodies against human papillomavirus 16 E6 restores p53 expression in transformed cervical keratinocytes. PLoS One. 2012;7(11):e50730. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0050730.

Lee YY, Cho YJ, Choi JJ, Choi CH, Kim TJ, Kim BG, Bae DS, Kim YS, Lee JW. The effect of high-intensity focused ultrasound in combination with cisplatin using a Xenograft model of cervical cancer. Anticancer Res. 2012 Dec;32(12):5285-9.

Click here for additional references from PubMed.

Clinical Trials