Instapundit links to a Medical Xpress article reporting positive results from treating tumors with focused ultrasound. Researchers at the University of Michigan found that destroying even part of tumors often stopped their spread.
The technology uses stronger sound waves than sonogram technology.
The treatment, called histotripsy, noninvasively focuses ultrasound waves to mechanically destroy target tissue with millimeter precision. The relatively new technique is currently being used in a human liver cancer trial in the United States and Europe.
The microsecond long pulses from UM's transducer generate microbubbles within the targeted tissues—bubbles that rapidly expand and collapse. These violent but extremely localized mechanical stresses kill cancer cells and break up the tumor's structure.
Apparently, the technique is being applied primarily to liver cancers. One is reminded of the sound-based weapon featured in the original David Lynch Dune film.
