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 colorectal cancer. This novel technology focuses beams of ultrasound energy precisely and accurately on targets deep in the body without damaging surrounding normal tissue.
How it Works
Where the beams converge, focused ultrasound produces several therapeutic effects that are being evaluated. One mechanism is to produce precise ablation (thermal destruction of tissue), enabling colorectal cancer to be fully or partially treated. Partial treatments may stimulate the patient’s immune response, which can have a broader effect. Another mechanism is to combine focused ultrasound with sonosensitizer therapeutics, such as epirubicin. This method results in cytotoxic reactive oxygen molecules in the region of the tumor. A third mechanism is to use focused ultrasound to cause local hyperthermia, which may enhance chemotherapy absorption. A fourth mechanism is the use of mechanical histotripsy to disrupt the liver metastatic disease and prompt an immune response that can deliver a wider response.
Advantages
The primary options for treatment of colorectal cancer include medication or invasive surgery.
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 New York is assessing the changes in the immune structure after using histotripsy for the treatment of liver metastasis from colorectal cancers.
A clinical trial in the UK is recruiting patients with colorectal cancer and metastasis to the liver. It is using focused ultrasound to activate a microbubble preparation designed to improve the penetration of chemotherapy to the liver.
A clinical trial in China is using focused ultrasound to enhance chemotherapy in patients with drug resistant colorectal cancer.
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/.
See a list of treatment sites >
See a list of laboratory research sites >
Find a Treatment Site
Search for a treatment center or clinical trial near you.
Regulatory Approval and Reimbursement
Focused ultrasound treatment for colorectal cancer is not yet approved by regulatory bodies or covered by medical insurance companies.
Notable Papers
Zhang X, Cao X, Su X, Hu W, Hou S, Zhou X, Yang H, Ji H. Ultrasound-Responsive Serotonylation and Hallmark Pathway Gene Signatures Reveal Tumor Microenvironment Vulnerabilities and Prognostic Subtypes in Colorectal Cancer. Cancer Biother Radiopharm. 2026 Feb 25:10849785261422976. doi: 10.1177/10849785261422976. PMID: 41742646
Yang Y, Zhang H, Shen Y, Yang F, Zhao D, Lin Y, Huang G. High-intensity focused ultrasound in the multimodal treatment of colorectal cancer liver metastases: A case report. Oncol Lett. 2026 Jan 7;31(3):98. doi: 10.3892/ol.2026.15451. eCollection 2026 Mar. PMID: 41551343
Ponomarchuk E, Tsysar S, Kadrev A, Chupova D, Pestova P, Karzova M, Papikyan L, Kvashennikova A, Danilova N, Malkov P, Chernyaev A, Buravkov S, Khokhlova V. Boiling Histotripsy as a Non-Invasive Non-Thermal Approach for Treatment of Human Colon Cancer Tumors: An Ex Vivo Proof-of-Concept. J Ultrasound Med. 2025 Nov 24. doi: 10.1002/jum.70137. PMID: 41277523
Wang S, Zhang Z, Sun L, Li J, Liu H, Huang X, Cui J, Zhu C, Wang S, Chen W, Qiu W. Clinical observation and immune effect of high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) treatment on patients with colorectal cancer liver metastasis. Int J Hyperthermia. 2025 Dec;42(1):2519344. doi: 10.1080/02656736.2025.2519344. Epub 2025 Aug 14. PMID: 40814140
Zamfirov L, Nguyen NM, Fernández-Sánchez ME, Cambronera Ghiglione P, Teston E, Dizeux A, Tiennot T, Farge E, Demené C, Tanter M. Acoustic-pressure-driven ultrasonic activation of the mechanosensitive receptor RET and of cell proliferation in colonic tissue. Nat Biomed Eng. 2024 Dec 20. doi: 10.1038/s41551-024-01300-9. PMID: 39706982
Zhang L, Qiao L, Zhang M, Xue Y, Zhang X, Gao X. Comparison of prognosis among patients with colorectal cancer liver metastases treated by surgical resection, radiofrequency ablation and HIFU: A protocol for network meta-analysis. Medicine (Baltimore). 2022 Aug 19;101(33):e27915. doi: 10.1097/MD.0000000000027915.
Kim D, Lee SS, Moon H, Park SY, Lee HJ. PD-L1 Targeting Immune-Microbubble Complex Enhances Therapeutic Index in Murine Colon Cancer Models. Pharmaceuticals (Basel). 2020 Dec 23;14(1):6. doi: 10.3390/ph14010006.
Li M, Wan G, Yu H, Xiong W. High-intensity focused ultrasound inhibits invasion and metastasis of colon cancer cells by enhancing microRNA-124-mediated suppression of STAT3. FEBS Open Bio. 2019 Jun;9(6):1128-1136. doi: 10.1002/2211-5463.12642. Epub 2019 May 4.
Ma B, Liu X, Yu Z. The effect of high intensity focused ultrasound on the treatment of liver cancer and patients’ immunity. Cancer Biomark. 2019;24(1):85-90. doi: 10.3233/CBM-181822.
Ektate K, Munteanu MC, Ashar H, Malayer J, Ranjan A. Chemo-immunotherapy of colon cancer with focused ultrasound and Salmonella-laden temperature sensitive liposomes (thermobots). Sci Rep. 2018 Aug 30;8(1):13062. doi: 10.1038/s41598-018-30106-4.
Click here for additional references from PubMed.