Meeting Report: Society for Thermal Medicine (STM) Annual Meeting

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The annual meeting of the Society for Thermal Medicine (STM) was held April 28 – May 2 in St. Pete Beach, Florida. The international event attracted more than one hundred attendees from engineering, physics, materials science, and biology.

“The Foundation continues to sponsor this important scientific meeting,” said Foundation Scientific Programs Manager Kelsie Timbie, PhD. “It brings together key experts from many fields and generates unique collaborations that couldn’t happen anywhere else. We were particularly excited to see the heavy emphasis on immune-based approaches and combination therapies.”

Participating researchers presented focused ultrasound abstracts on treatment planning, targeting, robotic assistance, software development, and quality assurance. The abstracts covered applications for oncology, pediatric oncology, immunotherapy, and drug delivery. Eight different research groups from around the world presented the following focused ultrasound abstracts at this year’s meeting:

Targetability of sites in variable pelvic geometries using MR-guided high-intensity focused ultrasound (MRgHIFU) as assessed in an in vivo porcine model by Lifei Zhu, Ari Partanen, H Michael Gach, Lauren Henke, Jessika Contreras, Dennis Hallahan, Imran Zoberi, Hong Chen, and Michael Altman at Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, USA and Profound Medical Corp., Mississauga, ON, Canada

Quality assurance in magnetic resonance guided focused ultrasound therapy by Allison Payne from the University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah, USA

Tumour ablation—induced thermal necrosis modulates immune-related cytokines by magnetic resonance—guided focused ultrasound surgery in bone metastatic lesions by Fang-Chi Hsu, Hsin-Lun Lee, Yin-Ju Chen, Chia-Chun Kuo, and Jeng-Fong Chiou from Ph.D. Program for Transnational Medicine, School of Medical Science, Taipei Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan, Department of Radiation Oncology, Taipei Medical University Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan, Genomics Research Center, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan, Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center, School of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, USA., and Institute of Biomedical Engineering, School of Biomedical Engineering, Taipei Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan

Treatment planning for MR-guided high intensity focused ultrasound by Pavel Yarmolenko, Karun Sharma, Haydar Celik, Avinash Eranki, Ari Partanen, Matthew Oetgen, AeRang Kim, Domiciano Santos, Janish Patel, and Peter Kim from Children’s National Medical Center, Washington, DC, USA, Profound Medical, Mississauga, ON, Canada, and George Washington University, Washington, DC, USA

Image-guided doxorubicin delivery for pediatric tumors using MRI-guided high-intensity focused ultrasound hyperthermia and temperature-sensitive liposomes by Rajiv Chopra from UT Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, USA

MRI-guided focused ultrasound robotic system for experiments with mice by Marinos Giannakou, Christakis Damianou from Cyprus University of Technology, limassol, Cyprus

Therapeutic efficacy of thermosensitive liposomal doxorubicin and short duration focused ultrasound hyperthermia in rabbit Vx2 tumors by Marc Santos, Sheng-Kai Wu, Maximilian Regenold, Jessica Steigenberger, Lucy Wang, Christine Allen, David Goertz, and Kullervo Hynynen from the University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada and Sunnybrook Research Institute, Toronto, ON, Canada

The effect of thermosensitive liposomal doxorubicin dose on localized doxorubicin deposition and therapeutic index in Vx2 tumors using MR-HIFU mild hyperthermia by Bingbing Cheng, Chenchen Bing, Robert Staruch, Yu Hong, Debra Szczepanski, Noelle Williams, Theodore Laetsch, and Rajiv Chopra at UT Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, USA, Philips Research, Cambridge, MA, USA, and Children’s Health, Dallas, TX, USA

Multisite software platform of MRI-guided focused ultrasound hyperthermia applications by Maryam Siddiqui, Steven Engler, Matthew MacDonald, Craig Macsemchuk, Jak Loree-Spacek, Amanda Beserra, Jeremy Tan, Sam Raisbeck, Elizabeth Morrow, Lior Lustgarten, Thomas Looi, James Drake, Adam Waspe, Christine Allen, Warren Foltz, Laura Curiel, and Samuel Pichardo from the University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada, Lakehead University, Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, Toronto, Ontario, Canada (Poster)