Sonfication is used to penetrate plant cells during extraction. Just thinking, could it be the next generation clean cancer treatment?
Ultrasound can be used not only in the examination, but also in the therapy, especially in the therapy of cancer, which has got effect in the treatment. Sonodynamic therapy is an experimental cancer therapy which uses ultrasound to enhance the cytotoxic effects of drugs known as sonosensitizers.
Thank you Doc. Sharafaldin Al-Musawi,
Your reply is so informative and thanks for the link as well.
Kind regards
I Ready to respond to all your question and help you if i can.
best and kind regards
Yes, high intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU, sonication) is being tested for certain cancers. To work efficiently, the ultra-sound (US) probe must be very close to the tumour. Hence, tumour that are deep or behind bones cannot be treated by this method. The size of the tumour also seems to be a limiting factor. However, the side-effects seems to be milder and temporary compared to other modalities (chemo and radiotherapy) [1].
Ultra-sound is also used for facilitating blood-brain barrier crossing of chemotherapy drugs [2].
Thermal (hyperthermia) and cryo-abalation therapy are also being explored for cleaner cancer treatment [3].
Electric-field based local treatments (Tumour Treating Fields) are also emerging as promising next-generation cancer treatments. This treatment kills cancer by interfering with DNA-replication, hence still could the long-term effects of radio or chemotherapy. Unlike chemotherapy which has systemic damage, the damage is localized when using electric field. This improved quality of life of patients [4].
Interesting Reads:
[1] High-intensity-focused-ultrasound-HIFU
http://www.cancerresearchuk.org/about-cancer/cancer-in-general/treatment/other/high-intensity-focused-ultrasound-hifu
[2] Carpentier, A. et al. (2016) Sci Transl Med.
Article Clinical trial of blood-brain barrier disruption by pulsed ultrasound
[3] Thermal ablation in cancer, Oncol Lett. 2016.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5038898/
[4] Tumor Treating Electric Fields
https://www.novocure.com/our-therapy/
Sonification is used to destroy cell and nuclear membranes during DNA extraction and I think may represent a competitive way to kill cancer cells in our body in certain cases especially in the case of local and small tumors.
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