Focused Ultrasound Therapy
Focused ultrasound is a noninvasive, therapeutic technology with the potential to improve the quality of life and decrease the cost of care for patients with endometrial tumors. This novel technology focuses beams of ultrasound energy precisely and accurately on targets in the body without damaging surrounding normal tissue.
How it Works
Where the beams converge, focused ultrasound produces precise ablation (thermal destruction of tissue) enabling endometrial tumors to be treated without surgery.
Advantages
The primary options for treatment of endometrial cancer include surgery, chemotherapy, radiation therapy, targeted treatments and combinations.
For certain patients, focused ultrasound could provide a noninvasive alternative to surgery with less risk of complications – such as surgical wound healing or infection – at a lower cost. Focused ultrasound can reach the desired target without damaging surrounding tissue, and enhance chemotherapy dose for the target, with less impact to the rest of the patient. It can also be repeated, if necessary.
Clinical Trials
A clinical trial in London, UK, is investigating the use of focused ultrasound with a variety of metastatic lesions to the pelvis, including endometrial tumors.
The Foundation updates these pages regularly, but with the increasing number of clinical trials, we want to be sure that our audience has the latest information available. Therefore, we also added the website search information for the above trials. If you click here, it will take you to the latest information available from https://www.clinicaltrials.gov/.
Find a Treatment Site
Search for a treatment center or clinical trial near you.
Regulatory Approval and Reimbursement
Focused ultrasound treatment for endometrial cancer is not yet approved by regulatory bodies or covered by medical insurance companies.
Notable Papers
Yang Q, Zhang X. Efficacy and safety of high-intensity focused ultrasound ablation for rectus abdominis endometriosis: a 7-year follow-up clinical study. Quant Imaging Med Surg. 2023 Mar 1;13(3):1417-1425. doi: 10.21037/qims-22-695. Epub 2023 Jan 29.
Wang Q, Wu X, Zhu X, Wang J, Xu F, Lin Z, Gong C, He M, Zhang L. MRI features and clinical outcomes of unexpected uterine sarcomas in patients who underwent high-intensity focused ultrasound ablation for presumed uterine fibroids. Int J Hyperthermia. 2021 Sep;38(2):39-45. doi: 10.1080/02656736.2021.1921288.
Wang S, Li BH, Wang JJ, Guo YS, Cheng JM, Ye H, Zang CY, Zhang Y, Duan H, Zhang XY. The safety of echo contrast-enhanced ultrasound in high-intensity focused ultrasound ablation for abdominal wall endometriosis: a retrospective study. Quant Imaging Med Surg. 2021 May;11(5):1751-1762. doi: 10.21037/qims-20-622.
Hu S, Liu Y, Chen R, Xiao Z. Exploring the Diagnostic Performance of Magnetic Resonance Imaging in Ultrasound-Guided High-Intensity Focused Ultrasound Ablation for Abdominal Wall Endometriosis. Front Physiol. 2022 Feb 15;13:819259. doi: 10.3389/fphys.2022.819259. eCollection 2022.
Imseeh G, Giles SL, Taylor A, Brown MRD, Rivens I, Gordon-Williams R, Ter Haar G, deSouza NM. Feasibility of palliating recurrent gynecological tumors with MRGHIFU: comparison of symptom, quality-of-life, and imaging response in intra and extra-pelvic disease. Int J Hyperthermia. 2021;38(1):623-632. doi: 10.1080/02656736.2021.1904154.
Click here for additional references from PubMed.