Key Points
- STM’s 39th Annual Meeting was held May 13–15, 2024, in Houston, Texas.
- The Foundation sponsored a special session, “Advances in Focused Ultrasound,” that featured two invited speakers plus abstract presentations.
- Chris Diederich, PhD, received the society’s prestigious William C. Dewey Award.
The 39th Annual Meeting of the Society for Thermal Medicine (STM) was held May 13–15, 2024, in Houston with the theme of “Delivering Clinical Solutions.” STM’s thermal medicine applications include medicine, biology, immunology, imaging, physics, engineering, and materials science. STM 2024 was attended by more than 90 researchers, clinicians, and industry professionals.
Special Session on Focused Ultrasound
A two-part session, “Advances in Focused Ultrasound,” that featured invited speakers and abstract presentations was sponsored by the Focused Ultrasound Foundation.
- In part 1, Natasha Sheybani, PhD, assistant professor of biomedical engineering and research director of the focused ultrasound cancer immunotherapy center at the University of Virginia, was an invited speaker. Her presentation, “Harnessing Acoustic Energy to Control the Immune System: Applications of Focused Ultrasound Technology for Immuno-Modulation in Cancer,” highlighted her work using focused ultrasound for immune-oncology and immunomodulation applications.
- In part 2, Ashish Ranjan, BVSc, PhD, an endowed professor of radiation oncology, vice chair for Comparative Oncology and Research Innovation, and director of the Veterinary Research and Oncology Clinic at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, TX, was an invited speaker. His presentation, “Chemo-Immunotherapy of Solid Tumors with Focused Ultrasound and Nanomedicines,” highlighted concepts and techniques for drug delivery and immunomodulation, and he also provided examples of clinical translation in canine cancer treatment.
Notable Awards
Professor Chris Diederich, PhD, director of Clinical Hyperthermia Physics in the Department of Radiation Oncology at the University of California–San Francisco (UCSF), received the society’s prestigious William C. Dewey Award. Dr. Diederich was presented this award in recognition of his mentorship and training of new investigators in the field of thermal medicine. In his award presentation entitled “Some Highlights of Mentoring and Ultrasound,” he described the contributions of trainees in UCSF’s early clinical investigations using ultrasound hyperthermia with Doxil and ThermoDox, the development and clinical implementation of catheter-based ultrasound technologies for hyperthermia and ablation, and low-intensity pulsed focused ultrasound for treating pain.
Furthermore, two focused ultrasound abstracts won STM’s Scholar in Training Awards (SITA), and these winning entries are notated below.
Focused Ultrasound Abstracts
In addition to the three presentations described above, there were nine proffered abstract presentations that would be of interest to the focused ultrasound community. The abstracts and posters describe delivering hyperthermia to head and neck tumors using MR-guided focused ultrasound (MRgFUS); both a new hybrid and an absolute method for MR temperature mapping in heterogeneous breast tissues; the effects of various types of focused ultrasound on the immune environment, and three novel focused ultrasound modeling approaches. These abstracts are each listed below, and the full text can be accessed by clicking on the hyperlink.
Advances in Focused Ultrasound Sessions
3. Pseudodifferential Approximations of Ultrasound Waves for Biomedical Applications by Sebastian Acosta from Baylor College of Medicine and Texas Children’s Hospital, Houston, TX, USA
6. Feasibility of Volumetric Hyperthermia in Head and Neck Cancer Using the ExAblate Body MR-Guided Focused Ultrasound System by Kisoo Kim, Pragya Gupta, Kazim Narsinh, Chris J Diederich, and Eugene Ozhinsky from UCSF, San Francisco, CA, USA
11. Comparing Temperature-Dependent and Constant Thermophysical Properties in Focused Ultrasound Simulations by Christian Valencia Narva and Christopher R Dillon from Brigham Young University, Provo, UT, USA***SITA Winner
37. In Vivo 3D Hybrid Fat-Water MR Thermometry via Simultaneous Proton Resonance Frequency Shift and T1 Measurement by Nicholas Richards, Michael Malmberg, Samuel I Adams-Tew, Henrik Odéen, Dennis Parker, and Allison Payne from the University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA
38. Absolute Magnetic Resonance Imaging Thermometry in the Breast using Interleaved Echo Planar Spectroscopic Imaging by Allison Payne, Dennis L Parker, Peyton Wong, Duane Blatter, Seong-Eun Kim, and Henrik Odéen from the University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA
44. Validating a Computational Model for Convection Heat Transfer during Transcranial Focused Ultrasound Therapies by Chris Paul, Alex Edwards, Steven P Allen, and Christopher R Dillon from Brigham Young University, Provo, UT, USA
Synergy of Immunotherapy and Thermal Therapy Session
50. Tumor Immunomodulatory Effects of Mild Hyperthermia, Thermal Ablation, and Histotripsy from Focused Ultrasound: A Comparative Analysis by Akansha Singh and Ashish Ranjan from UT Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, USA
Poster Session
66. Boiling Histotripsy-Induced Local Tumor Immunomodulation Impacts the Gut Microbiome at a Distant Site by Sri Vidhya Chandrasekar, Akansha Singh, and Ashish Ranjan from UT Southwestern, Dallas, TX, USA***SITA Winner
70. Feasibility of Targeting the Dorsal Root Ganglia with Focused Ultrasound for Treatment of Low Back Pain by Ethan D Griswold, Michelle Kline, Allison Payne, Lubdha M Shah, and Viola Rieke from the Departments of Biomedical Engineering and Radiology & Imaging Sciences at the University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA
Search your own key words in the Online Meeting Program.
Acknowledgements
The Foundation thanks Dr. Chris Diederich for writing and submitting this meeting report. Dr. Diederich and Allison Payne, PhD, both served on the STM 2024 planning committee.