{"entity":{"id":"hifu-histotripsy","kind":"technology","name":"Focused ultrasound & histotripsy","aka":[],"tldr":"Destroying tumours from outside the body with tightly focused sound waves, using either heat or microscopic bubbles.","summary":"Focused ultrasound uses an extracorporeal transducer to concentrate acoustic energy inside the body, either heating tissue to coagulation (HIFU) or, in histotripsy, driving cavitation that mechanically fractionates the tumour without heat. HIFU is approved for prostate cancer focal therapy and uterine fibroids. Histotripsy (HistoSonics Edison, FDA 2023) mechanically liquefies liver tumours, with early evidence of immune activation, and trials extend to kidney and pancreas. The approach is completely non-invasive and uses no ionising radiation. Its constraints are the acoustic window, since ribs and bowel gas block the beam, and the fact that long-term oncologic data are limited, so durability of tumour control is the open question. The simple version is that tightly focused sound waves destroy a tumour from outside the body.","status":"established","asOf":"2026-09-04","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-intensity_focused_ultrasound","links":[{"label":"Wikipedia","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-intensity_focused_ultrasound"}],"tags":[],"related":[],"cancers":["hcc","prostate","pancreatic"],"sections":["surgery","devices"],"technologies":[],"targets":[],"drugs":[],"companies":["histosonics","insightec","profound-medical"],"institutions":["uclh","sunnybrook-odette"],"pathways":[],"terms":[],"trials":[],"people":[],"bottlenecks":[],"keyPapers":[],"journals":[],"dependsOn":[],"notes":[],"principle":"Extracorporeal transducer focuses acoustic energy; thermal coagulation (HIFU) or cavitation-driven mechanical fractionation (histotripsy).","strengths":["Completely non-invasive","No ionising radiation"],"limitations":["Acoustic window (ribs, bowel gas)","Long-term oncologic data limited"]},"route":"/technologies/hifu-histotripsy/","neighbours":{"cancer":[{"id":"prostate-bcr","kind":"cancer","name":"Biochemical recurrence of prostate cancer","route":"/cancers/prostate-bcr/"},{"id":"hcc-early","kind":"cancer","name":"Early hepatocellular carcinoma (BCLC 0 and A)","route":"/cancers/hcc-early/"},{"id":"glioblastoma","kind":"cancer","name":"Glioma & glioblastoma","route":"/cancers/glioblastoma/"},{"id":"hcc","kind":"cancer","name":"Hepatocellular carcinoma","route":"/cancers/hcc/"},{"id":"pancreatic","kind":"cancer","name":"Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma","route":"/cancers/pancreatic/"},{"id":"prostate","kind":"cancer","name":"Prostate cancer","route":"/cancers/prostate/"}],"section":[{"id":"devices","kind":"section","name":"Devices & Physical Therapies","route":"/fronts/devices/"},{"id":"surgery","kind":"section","name":"Surgery & Interventional","route":"/fronts/surgery/"}],"company":[{"id":"histosonics","kind":"company","name":"HistoSonics","route":"/companies/histosonics/"},{"id":"insightec","kind":"company","name":"Insightec","route":"/companies/insightec/"},{"id":"profound-medical","kind":"company","name":"Profound Medical","route":"/companies/profound-medical/"},{"id":"sonalasense","kind":"company","name":"SonALAsense","route":"/companies/sonalasense/"}],"institution":[{"id":"sunnybrook-odette","kind":"institution","name":"Sunnybrook Odette Cancer Centre","route":"/institutions/sunnybrook-odette/"},{"id":"uclh","kind":"institution","name":"University College London Hospitals / UCL Cancer Institute","route":"/institutions/uclh/"},{"id":"uva-cancer-center","kind":"institution","name":"UVA Comprehensive Cancer Center","route":"/institutions/uva-cancer-center/"}],"technology":[{"id":"bbb-focused-ultrasound","kind":"technology","name":"Focused-ultrasound blood-brain barrier opening","route":"/technologies/bbb-focused-ultrasound/"},{"id":"histotripsy-immune-priming","kind":"technology","name":"Histotripsy as an immune primer","route":"/technologies/histotripsy-immune-priming/"},{"id":"in-situ-vaccination","kind":"technology","name":"In situ vaccination","route":"/technologies/in-situ-vaccination/"},{"id":"microwave-rf-ablation","kind":"technology","name":"Microwave and radiofrequency ablation systems","route":"/technologies/microwave-rf-ablation/"},{"id":"photothermal-nanoparticles","kind":"technology","name":"Photothermal (plasmonic) nanoparticle ablation","route":"/technologies/photothermal-nanoparticles/"},{"id":"sonodynamic-therapy","kind":"technology","name":"Sonodynamic therapy","route":"/technologies/sonodynamic-therapy/"},{"id":"transcranial-focused-ultrasound-systems","kind":"technology","name":"Transcranial focused ultrasound systems (Exablate Neuro, SonoCloud)","route":"/technologies/transcranial-focused-ultrasound-systems/"}],"term":[{"id":"prostate-focal-therapy","kind":"term","name":"Focal and tissue-preserving treatment of prostate cancer","route":"/terms/prostate-focal-therapy/"}],"person":[{"id":"hashim-ahmed","kind":"person","name":"Hashim U. Ahmed","route":"/people/hashim-ahmed/"},{"id":"mark-emberton","kind":"person","name":"Mark Emberton","route":"/people/mark-emberton/"}],"idea":[{"id":"idea-moon-brain-delivery-platform","kind":"idea","name":"A standard platform to get drugs into the brain: focused ultrasound plus shuttle-engineered therapeutics","route":"/ideas/idea-moon-brain-delivery-platform/"},{"id":"idea-fund-ablation-versus-surgery-trials","kind":"idea","name":"Device-agnostic public trials of ablation technologies against surgery","route":"/ideas/idea-fund-ablation-versus-surgery-trials/"},{"id":"idea-fund-device-technique-registry","kind":"idea","name":"Mandatory staged registries for new surgical techniques before wide adoption","route":"/ideas/idea-fund-device-technique-registry/"},{"id":"idea-bio2-histotripsy-immune-priming","kind":"idea","name":"Mechanically pulverise one tumour with ultrasound to wake the immune system","route":"/ideas/idea-bio2-histotripsy-immune-priming/"}],"roadmap":[{"id":"devices-roadmap","kind":"roadmap","name":"Devices and physical therapies roadmap: heat and light → electric fields and focused sound → drug-releasing implants","route":"/roadmaps/devices-roadmap/"},{"id":"surgery-roadmap","kind":"roadmap","name":"Surgery roadmap: radical operations → less surgery → no surgery when a drug has done the work","route":"/roadmaps/surgery-roadmap/"}]}}