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.

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.

> 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.