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 pancreatic 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 can produce a couple of effects. One is ablation, or thermal destruction of tissue. The goal could be complete ablation of the cancer or it can be done partially, and partial ablation may help awaken the immune system for a more generalized response. This ablation can also be targeted at the innervation of the pancreas, to help lessen the pain from the disease. A second approach is to treat the targeted tissue to enable enhanced absorption of chemotherapy.
Advantages
Current treatment options are focused on pancreatic cancer, and include combinations of surgery, radiation, chemotherapy, embolization or other ablative methods, yet these still not very effective for many patients.
Focused ultrasound – used alone and in combination with other therapies – is being investigated to treat pancreatic cancer and the pain associated with the disease. Focused ultrasound has the potential to achieve symptomatic relief by improving the resection of the tumor prior to surgery, by reducing tumor size and spread, and by reduction in overall tumor pain.
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. It can reach the desired target without damaging surrounding tissue and is repeatable, if necessary.
Focused ultrasound can also be a complement to drug therapy, enabling enhanced delivery of chemotherapy or immunotherapy to tumors. It may potentially induce an anti-tumor immune response.
Clinical Trials
A clinical trial in France is treating patients with unresectable pancreatic cancer with focused ultrasound.
A clinical trial in South Korea is using focused ultrasound prior to chemotherapy in patients with borderline resectable and unresectable pancreatic cancer.
A clinical trial in Japan is using focused ultrasound to enhance chemotherapy in patients with pancreatic cancer.
A clinical trial in Spain is using Histotripsy for the treatment of pancreatic adenocarcinoma.
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 for palliative treatment in patients with pancreatic cancer.
Focused ultrasound treatment for patients with pancreatic 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 pancreatic cancer. Examples of these studies include:
- Focused ultrasound to induce an immune response that could be combined with immunotherapeutics 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
Notable Papers
Suggested Reading: Focused Ultrasound for Pancreatic Cancer (PDF), July 2019.
Yamaguchi T, Kitahara S, Matsui A, Okamoto J, Muragaki Y, Masamune K. HIFU induces reprogramming of the tumor immune microenvironment in a pancreatic cancer mouse model. Med Mol Morphol. 2025 Jan 28. doi: 10.1007/s00795-025-00419-1. PMID: 39870899
Ran L, Yang W, Chen X, Zhang J, Zhou K, Zhu H, Jin C. High-Intensity Focused Ultrasound Ablation Combined With Pharmacogenomic-Guided Chemotherapy for Advanced Pancreatic Cancer: Initial Experience. Ultrasound Med Biol. 2024 Oct;50(10):1566-1572. doi: 10.1016/j.ultrasmedbio.2024.06.013. Epub 2024 Jul 18. PMID: 39025741
Yao Y, Zheng Y, Wu M, Gao Y, Yu Q, Liu M, Luo X, Wang R, Jiang L. CD133-targeted multifunctional nanomicelles for dual-modality imaging and synergistic high-intensity focus ultrasound (HIFU) ablation on pancreatic cancer in nude mice. J Mater Chem B. 2024 May 22. doi: 10.1039/d4tb00091a. PMID: 38775254
Liu Y, Ji Y, Zhu J, Zhu L, Zhu Y, Bao Z, Zhao H. Repeated highintensity focused ultrasound combined with iodine125 seed interstitial brachytherapy offers improved quality of life and pain control for patients with advanced pancreatic cancer: A 52patient retrospective study. Oncol Lett. 2024 Feb 16;27(4):157. doi: 10.3892/ol.2024.14290. eCollection 2024 Apr. PMID: 38426153
Gray MD, Spiers L, Coussios CC. Sound speed and attenuation of human pancreas and pancreatic tumors and their influence on focused ultrasound thermal and mechanical therapies. Med Phys. 2024 Feb;51(2):809-825. doi: 10.1002/mp.16622. Epub 2023 Jul 21. PMID: 37477551
Nowak S, Kloth C, Theis M, Marinova M, Attenberger UI, Sprinkart AM, Luetkens JA. Deep learning-based assessment of CT markers of sarcopenia and myosteatosis for outcome assessment in patients with advanced pancreatic cancer after high-intensity focused ultrasound treatment. Eur Radiol. 2024 Jan;34(1):279-286. doi: 10.1007/s00330-023-09974-6. Epub 2023 Aug 12. PMID: 37572195
Zhou K, Strunk H, Dimitrov D, Vidal-Jove J, Gonzalez-Carmona MA, Essler M, Jin C, Mei Z, Zhu H, Marinova M. US-guided high-intensity focused ultrasound in pancreatic cancer treatment: a consensus initiative between Chinese and European HIFU centers. Int J Hyperthermia. 2024;41(1):2295812. doi: 10.1080/02656736.2023.2295812. Epub 2023 Dec 30. PMID: 38159562
Click here for additional references from PubMed.