Key Points
- The American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM) held its 64th Annual Meeting July 10–14, 2022, in Washington, DC.
- The theme was “Celebrating Medical Physics: Transforming Human Health.”
- Three presentations addressed work in the field of focused ultrasound.
The American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM) held its 64th Annual Meeting July 10–14, 2022, in Washington, DC. The theme of the meeting was “Celebrating Medical Physics: Transforming Human Health.”
During the conference, a President’s Symposium featured keynote speakers on Alzheimer’s disease, the importance of listening to patients, and the Cancer Moonshot.
Three presentations featured work in the field of focused ultrasound.
- Lili Chen, PhD, from Fox Chase Cancer Center presented “Investigation of the Mechanisms of Prostate Tumor Growth Delay After Pulsed High Intensity Focused Ultrasound Treatment.” As the title suggests, the team sought to determine why pulsed focused ultrasound has been shown to delay tumor growth in preclinical prostate cancer studies. The results suggest that the delay may be caused by factors such as cavitation, apoptosis, DNA damage, and compromised blood supply.
- An interactive poster presented by Jacinta Browne, PhD, outlined a retrospective analysis of 73 women with uterine fibroids who were treated with focused ultrasound. In “Treatment Outcomes of Patients Treated with the 2nd Generation MR-Guided Focused Ultrasound System for Symptomatic Uterine Fibroids: Five-Year Follow-Up,” the group from the Mayo Clinic determined that focused ultrasound exceeded previous clinical results for nonperfused volume ratio, re-intervention rate, and other significant markers. Furthermore, the patients had sustained improvement up to five years post-treatment.
- Martin Wagner, PhD, from the University of Wisconsin – Madison, presented “Automated Robotic Targeting System for In-Vivo Histotripsy Treatment.” The group sought to improve tumor visualization during histotripsy treatment of the liver, which is currently done with ultrasound. Because all tumors cannot be seen with ultrasound, the group developed an integrated a real-time, C-arm–guided targeting system within the histotripsy system’s robotic arm.
The next AAPM annual meeting will be held July 23–27, 2023, in Houston, Texas.