Scientists investigate sound waves for burning away Cancer pain

Researchers at The Institute of Cancer Research, London, and The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, both in the UK, have announced they are experimenting with a novel approach to treating cancer pain, using next-generation ultrasound to burn away the source of the pain.
In cases where cancer has metastasized to the bone, patients can experience intense bone pain that severely reduces their quality of life.
The Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) team hopes that its new high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) approach could provide an effective and non-invasive alternative for treating pain when radiation therapy is no longer an option.
HIFU works by concentrating ultrasound energy precisely on a target to destroy tissue with heat. The heat destroys the nerve tissue in the bone surrounding the tumor but leaves the neighboring tissue unharmed.
"Focused ultrasound is an exciting potential cancer treatment because of its ability to target tumors very precisely," says study co-leader Gail ter Haar, professor of Therapeutic Ultrasound at ICR.
"The point onto which the ultrasound beam is focused gets very hot," she explains, "but the surrounding tissue is left unharmed. It's like using a magnifying glass in the sun to start a fire, where you need to form a sharp focal spot on the dry tinder."
The precision targeting, meanwhile, comes from magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), which identifies the area for treatment and tracks the therapy in real time.
Ultrasound's main use in medicine until now has been as a way of imaging the body. The ICR researchers believe that by using ultrasound at a much higher power, as in HIFU, it provides a previously unexplored method of treating cancer.