Home Diseases and Conditions Retinal Tumors

Retinal 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 research for this condition is in the laboratory phase and is not yet available for patients.

Focused Ultrasound Therapy 

Focused ultrasound is a rapidly evolving, therapeutic technology that could transform the quality of life and decrease the cost of care for patients with retinal 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, low intensity focused ultrasound produces a cascade of events that result in the starvation of the tumor from essential nutrients.  This has been shown in a preclinical model. While significant work has been accomplished, there is still much to be done before this technology will be widely available. 

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

For certain patients, focused ultrasound could provide a non-invasive alternative to existing therapies.  

Advantages 

  • Focused ultrasound is non-invasive, so it does not carry added concerns like surgical wound healing or infection.  
  • Focused ultrasound can reach the desired target without damaging surrounding tissue. 
  • It can be repeated, if necessary. 

Clinical Trials 

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

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 retinal tumors is not yet approved by regulatory bodies or covered by medical insurance companies. 

Notable Papers 

Ye Y. Advances in Ultrasound-Responsive Radiopharmaceutical Systems for the Management of Ocular Malignancies. Cancer Biother Radiopharm. 2025 Oct 24. doi: 10.1177/10849785251388246. PMID: 41131980 

Quan L, Wang M, Wang Z, Du Z.  LIFU (Low-Intensity Focused Ultrasound) Activated Tumor-Starvation/Oxidative-Stress Combined Therapy for Treating Retinoblastoma. Int J Nanomedicine. 2025 Apr 3;20:4085-4103. doi: 10.2147/IJN.S506179. eCollection 2025. PMID: 40196026 

Bae WH, Maraka S, Daher A. Challenges and advances in glioblastoma targeted therapy: the promise of drug repurposing and biomarker exploration. Front Oncol. 2024 Oct 8;14:1441460. doi: 10.3389/fonc.2024.1441460. eCollection 2024. PMID: 39439947  

Wang M, Yang Q, Li M, Zou H, Wang Z, Ran H, Zheng Y, Jian J, Zhou Y, Luo Y, Ran Y, Jiang S, Zhou X. Multifunctional Nanoparticles for Multimodal Imaging-Guided Low-Intensity Focused Ultrasound/Immunosynergistic Retinoblastoma Therapy. ACS Appl Mater Interfaces. 2020 Feb 5;12(5):5642-5657. doi: 10.1021/acsami.9b22072. Epub 2020 Jan 27. PMID: 31940169 

Wang S, Mahesh SP, Liu J, Geist C, Zderic V. Focused ultrasound facilitated thermo-chemotherapy for targeted retinoblastoma treatment: a modeling study. Exp Eye Res. 2012 Jul;100:17-25. doi: 10.1016/j.exer.2012.04.009. Epub 2012 Apr 28. PMID: 22564972 

Click here for additional references from PubMed.