{"id":2882,"date":"2021-12-08T20:27:00","date_gmt":"2021-12-09T00:27:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fusfoundation.org\/?post_type=sw_disease_condition&#038;p=2882"},"modified":"2025-07-02T01:12:00","modified_gmt":"2025-07-02T05:12:00","slug":"liver-fibrosis","status":"publish","type":"sw_disease_condition","link":"https:\/\/www.fusfoundation.org\/diseases-and-conditions\/liver-fibrosis\/","title":{"rendered":"Liver Fibrosis"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-focused-ultrasound-therapy\">Focused Ultrasound Therapy<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>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 liver fibrosis. This novel technology focuses beams of ultrasound energy precisely and accurately on targets deep in the body without damaging surrounding normal tissue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>How it Works<\/strong><br>Where the beams converge, focused ultrasound produces two therapeutic effects that are being evaluated. One mechanism is precise ablation (thermal destruction of tissue). A second mechanism is to use focused ultrasound to enhanced the delivery of genetic therapy to treat liver fibrosis. This technique was successful in preclinical studies but has not yet been translated to the clinic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Advantages<\/strong><br>The primary options for treatment of liver fibrosis include medication and may eventually include liver transplantation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For certain patients, focused ultrasound could provide a noninvasive alternative to surgery with less risk of complications \u2013 such as surgical wound healing or infection \u2013 at a lower cost. It can reach the desired target without damaging surrounding tissue and is repeatable, if necessary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-clinical-trials\">Clinical Trials<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>At the present time, there are no clinical trials recruiting patients for focused ultrasound treatment of liver fibrosis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>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 <a href=\"https:\/\/clinicaltrials.gov\/search?cond=Liver%20Fibrosis&amp;term=focused%20ultrasound&amp;aggFilters=status:not%20rec\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>here<\/strong><\/a>, it will take you to the latest information available from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.clinicaltrials.gov\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>https:\/\/www.clinicaltrials.gov\/<\/strong><\/a>.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-find-a-treatment-site\">Find a Treatment Site<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fusfoundation.org\/the-technology\/treatment-sites\/?indication=Liver%20Fibrosis\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Search for a treatment center or clinical trial near you.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-regulatory-approval-and-reimbursement\">Regulatory Approval and Reimbursement<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Focused ultrasound treatment for liver fibrosis is not yet approved by regulatory bodies or covered by medical insurance companies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-notable-papers\">Notable Papers<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Joung C, Heo J, Pahk KJ, Pahk K. <a href=\"https:\/\/pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/38956264\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Boiling histotripsy exhibits anti-fibrotic effects in animal models of liver fibrosis<\/a>. Sci Rep. 2024 Jul 2;14(1):15099. doi: 10.1038\/s41598-024-66078-x. PMID: 38956264&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Payen T, Palermo CF, Sastra SA, Chen H, Han Y, Olive KP, Konofagou EE.&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/pubmed\/27401609\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Elasticity mapping of murine abdominal organs in vivo using harmonic motion imaging (HMI).&nbsp;<\/a>Phys Med Biol. 2016 Aug 7;61(15):5741-54. doi: 10.1088\/0031-9155\/61\/15\/5741. Epub 2016 Jul 12.<br><br>Anzidei M, Napoli A, Sandolo F, Marincola BC, Di Martino M, Berloco P, Bosco S, Bezzi M, Catalano C.&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/pubmed\/24595660\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Magnetic resonance-guided focused ultrasound ablation in abdominal moving organs: a feasibility study in selected cases of pancreatic and liver cancer.&nbsp;<\/a>Cardiovasc Intervent Radiol. 2014 Dec;37(6):1611-7. doi: 10.1007\/s00270-014-0861-x. Epub 2014 Mar 5.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Huang G, Zhang H, Bai R. R Bai.&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.sciencedirect.com\/science\/article\/pii\/S2211383516303045\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Advances in ultrasound-targeted microbubble\u2013mediated gene therapy for liver fibrosis.<\/a>&nbsp;Acta Pharmaceutica Sinica B Volume 7, Issue 4, July 2017, Pages 447-452.&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1016\/j.apsb.2017.02.004\">https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1016\/j.apsb.2017.02.004<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Rauch M, Marinova M, Schild HH, Strunk H.&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/pubmed\/26211870\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">High intensity focused ultrasound for the treatment of advanced liver cancer.&nbsp;<\/a>Dig Liver Dis. 2015 Nov;47(11):989-90. doi: 10.1016\/j.dld.2015.06.016. Epub 2015 Jul 6.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/pubmed\/?term=(%22focused+ultrasound%22+OR+HIFU)+and+%22fibrosis%22+and+%22liver%22\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Click here<\/a>&nbsp;for additional references from PubMed.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_searchwp_excluded":"","_editorskit_title_hidden":false,"_editorskit_reading_time":0,"_editorskit_is_block_options_detached":false,"_editorskit_block_options_position":"{}","episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","_vp_format_video_url":"","_vp_image_focal_point":[],"footnotes":""},"sw_disease_condition_cat":[21],"sw_disease_condition_stage":[14],"class_list":["post-2882","sw_disease_condition","type-sw_disease_condition","status-publish","hentry","sw_disease_condition_cat-gastrointestinal"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.2 (Yoast SEO v27.2) - 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