Boiling histotripsy is a high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) technique that produces mechanical effects used to fractionate solid tumors. A collaborative group of Korean researchers sought to determine whether boiling histotripsy could also induce an immune response in human breast adenocarcinoma cells, and if so, whether that response was due to boiling histotripsy’s ability to preserve antigenic proteins rather than denature them as thermal ablation does. Did the mechanical stress of the treatment promote immunogenic cell death? If so, were the levels of signaling proteins correlated to the degree of mechanical damage? See Scientific Reports >
In the early 1990s, Kullervo Hynynen, PhD, and colleagues combined focused ultrasound with MRI to give physicians the ability to visualize focused ultrasound treatment. Now, a 20-year-old MR imaging technique called tractography may be pushing the field of focused ultrasound to advance. Tractography allows better targeting, outcomes analysis after treatment, and improved patient selection. It has been used for about three years while treating essential tremor patients. A paper by Nir Lipsman’s group at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre shows a new indication for tractography, in patients with Alzheimer’s disease. Will tractography begin to be used throughout the field? See Neuroimage >