The complexity, diversity, and heterogeneity of tumors seriously undermine the therapeutic potential of treatment. Therefore, the current trend in clinical research has gradually shifted from a focus on monotherapy to combination therapy for enhanced treatment efficacy. More importantly, the cooperative enhancement interactions between several types of monotherapy contribute to the naissance of multimodal synergistic therapy, which results in remarkable superadditive (namely “1 + 1 > 2”) effects, stronger than any single therapy or their theoretical combination. In this review, state-of-the-art studies concerning recent advances in nanotechnology-mediated multimodal synergistic therapy will be systematically discussed, with an emphasis on the construction of multifunctional nanomaterials for realizing bimodal and trimodal synergistic therapy as well as the intensive exploration of the underlying synergistic mechanisms for explaining the significant improvements in synergistic therapeutic outcome. Furtherm...

Nanotechnology for Multimodal Synergistic Cancer Therapy

The fast development of photoactivation for cancer treatment provides an efficient photo-therapeutic strategy for cancer treatment, but traditional photodynamic or photothermal therapy suffers from the critical issue of low in vivo penetration depth of tissues. As a non-invasive therapeutic modality, sonodynamic therapy (SDT) can break the depth barrier of photoactivation because ultrasound has an intrinsically high tissue-penetration performance. Micro/nanoparticles can efficiently augment the SDT efficiency based on nanobiotechnology. The state-of-art of the representative achievements on micro/nanoparticle-enhanced SDT is summarized, and specific functions of micro/nanoparticles for SDT are discussed, from the different viewpoints of ultrasound medicine, material science and nanobiotechnology. Emphasis is put on the relationship of structure/composition-SDT performance of micro/nanoparticle-based sonosensitizers. Three types of micro/nanoparticle-augmented SDT are discussed, including organic and inorganic sonosensitizers and micro/nanoparticle-based but sonosensitizer-free strategies to enhance the SDT outcome. SDT-based synergistic cancer therapy augmented by micro/nanoparticles and their biosafety are also included. Some urgent critical issues and potential developments of micro/nanoparticle-augmented SDT for efficient cancer treatment are addressed. It is highly expected that micro/nanoparticle-augmented SDT will be quickly developed as a new and efficient therapeutic modality which will find practical applications in cancer treatment. At the same time, fundamental disciplines regarding materials science, chemistry, medicine and nanotechnology will be advanced.

Micro/Nanoparticle-Augmented Sonodynamic Therapy (SDT): Breaking the Depth Shallow of Photoactivation.

OBJECTIVE. The objective of this article is to introduce the reader to the principles and applications of high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU).CONCLUSION. Although a great deal about HIFU physics is understood, its clinical applications are currently limited, and multiple trials are underway worldwide to determine its efficacy.

https://www.ajronline.org/doi/pdf/10.2214/AJR.07.2671

High-Intensity Focused Ultrasound: Current Potential and Oncologic Applications

High-temperature hyperthermia or thermal therapy is being applied for destruction of cancerous tissue, eradication or reduction of benign tumours and targeted tissue modification and remodelling. Many of these high-temperature technologies provide a minimally-invasive alternative with lower morbidities compared to the traditional surgical procedures. The effects of high-temperature thermal exposure on tissues, examples of heating technology and procedures of clinical practice related to high-temperature thermal therapy are reviewed. This brief review encompasses interstitial, endocavity, intraluminal and external applications of RF, microwave, ultrasound, laser and thermal conduction energy sources. The technology is prevalent and in various levels of advancement, with the move toward more spatially-accurate and controllable heating systems combined with image-guidance and treatment verification warranted, especially for the treatment of cancer.

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/02656730500271692

Thermal ablation and high-temperature thermal therapy: overview of technology and clinical implementation.

In high intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) therapy, an ultrasound beam is focused within the body to locally affect the targeted site without damaging intervening tissues. The most common HIFU regime is thermal ablation. Recently there has been increasing interest in generating purely mechanical lesions in tissue (histotripsy). This paper provides an overview of several studies on the development of histotripsy methods toward clinical applications. Two histotripsy approaches and examples of their applications are presented. In one approach, sequences of high-amplitude, short (microsecond-long), focused ultrasound pulses periodically produce dense, energetic bubble clouds that mechanically disintegrate tissue. In an alternative approach, longer (millisecond-long) pulses with shock fronts generate boiling bubbles and the interaction of shock fronts with the resulting vapour cavity causes tissue disintegration. Recent preclinical studies on histotripsy are reviewed for treating benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH), liver and kidney tumours, kidney stone fragmentation, enhancing anti-tumour immune response, and tissue decellularisation for regenerative medicine applications. Potential clinical advantages of the histotripsy methods are discussed. Histotripsy methods can be used to mechanically ablate a wide variety of tissues, whilst selectivity sparing structures such as large vessels. Both ultrasound and MR imaging can be used for targeting and monitoring the treatment in real time. Although the two approaches utilise different mechanisms for tissue disintegration, both have many of the same advantages and offer a promising alternative method of non-invasive surgery.

/pdf/histotripsy-methods-in-mechanical-disintegration-of-tissue-1hbw22tnt4.pdf

Histotripsy methods in mechanical disintegration of tissue: Towards clinical applications

http://hifu.svmarina.com/forms/HIFU%20Chinese%20review%20(1038%20cases)%202004.pdf

Wei Wang

Papers

Extracorporeal high intensity focused ultrasound ablation in the treatment of 1038 patients with solid carcinomas in China: an overview.