Comment by owenthejumper
1 day ago
This can also be used for prostate, it's nothing new. But you cannot use this anywhere where the ultrasound would be blocked by other organs.
Fun fact: using this ultrasound for prostate cancer treatment reduces the risk of erectile disfunction
>But you cannot use this anywhere where the ultrasound would be blocked by other organs.
Yes you can. If you had an array of ultrasonic transducers around the body you could have each of them in phase targeting a single spot. Beamforming is a thing we've been doing for years with RF. It's even more trivial with sound.
We were privy to a lab that accidentally cooked mice with gold nanoparticles in the late 90s with multiple IR lasers. After they figured the power side, it turns out that gold nanoparticles are wildly cytotoxic on a number of axes.
https://house.fandom.com/wiki/Clueless
IN fact, they do this today to break up kidney stones. Multiple beams.
How is it more trivial with sound? Sound is just a wave just like ultrasound. In fact, ultrasound has the word sound in it making it sound. So your conclusion is not sound.
Reread, and you'll realize it means more trivial than RF.
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The article mentions that this is a different type of ultrasound treatment than the one that has been in use for prostate cancer treatment for some time.
Can’t the surgery be then with a small probe just to get the ultra sound tip near the cancer? I don’t know the size of the ultrasound tip but seems to me it can be smaller then a hand or tweezers.
Often constructive and destructive interference of waves can be used to focus the ultrasound through tissue without any incisions at all. Kidney stones are sometimes broken up this way.
See currentsurgical.com
> Fun fact: using this ultrasound for prostate cancer treatment reduces the risk of erectile disfunction
I’m not aware of strong evidence in this area (not saying you’re incorrect).
For the liver indications, several elite radiology departments have had very poor outcomes with their patients, despite the strong public data. I would not, with my own prostate, try a new technology until at least a decade out, at least.
Urinary and erectile function are a major issue with partial and radical prostatectomy. These ultrasound treatments are showing significant improvements in both areas.
This technology is also now used to treat non-cancerous prostate enlargement (BPH).
> Urinary and erectile function are a major issue with partial and radical prostatectomy
There are other options besides prostatectomy or the untested histotripsy.
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Here is a trial (2022): https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35714666/
And a review: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36686753/