Medical Design and Outsourcing

  • Home
  • Medical Device Business
    • Mergers & Acquisitions
    • Financial
    • Regulatory
  • Applications
    • Cardiovascular
    • Devices
    • Imaging
    • Implantables
    • Medical Equipment
    • Orthopedic
    • Surgical
  • Technologies
    • Contract Manufacturing
    • Components
    • Electronics
    • Extrusions
    • Materials
    • Motion Control
    • Prototyping
    • Pumps
    • Tubing
  • Med Tech Resources
    • DeviceTalks Tuesdays
    • Digital Editions
    • eBooks
    • Manufacturer Search
    • Medical Device Handbook
    • MedTech 100 Index
    • Podcasts
    • Print Subscription
    • The Big 100
    • Webinars / Digital Events
    • Whitepapers
    • Video
  • 2022 Leadership in MedTech
    • 2022 Leadership Voting!
    • 2021 Winners
    • 2020 Winners
  • Women in Medtech

How to make ultrasound zap tumors in a moving organ

March 22, 2017 By Chris Newmarker

focused ultrasound liver tumors cancer

[Image courtesy of Fraunhofer Institute for Medical Image Computing]

Researchers led by the Fraunhofer Institute for Medical Image Computing think they’ve overcome the challenges standing in the way of using ultrasound to kill cancer tumors in organs that move with breathing.

Until now, health practitioners have mostly limited ultrasound to treating prostate cancer, bone metastases and uterine myoma, according to the Fraunhofer Institute (Bremen, Germany). Organs that move when a patient breathes are trickier, with doctors telling patients to hold their breath or putting the patients under anesthesia.

The Trans-Fusimo project – a Fraunhofer-coordinated effort including 11 research institutions in 7 countries – developed a new ultrasound therapy concept. The patient lies in an MRI producing an image of the liver’s position every 10th of a second while an ultrasound transducer with more than 1,000 small transmitters sits on the stomach. The MRI scanner controls the process, ensuring that the transducer only cooks the tumor cells and not healthy tissue.

A major challenge for Trans-Fusimo involved developing highly reliable software that could run in real time to determine the path of the focused ultrasound, ensuring the ultrasound reaches the liver tumor even when the patient moves.

“Generating an image of the liver’s position every 10thh of a second is not fast enough to reliably direct the ultrasound beam. This is why we developed software that can see into the immediate future and calculate the next position of the treated region,” said project manager Sabrina Haase, a mathematician at Fraunhofer MEVIS, in a news release.

The Trans-Fusimo team also had to prevent damage to the ribs sitting in front of the liver. They accomplished this by deactivating ultrasound transducer elements that would have hit the ribs.

The researchers have completed technical development and conducted preliminary tests, in which focused ultrasound was tested on a gel model that a robotic arm moved back and forth in an MR scanner to simulate liver movement in the body. “We have completed the technical development phase and have already run preliminary tests,” Haase said. In the test, a robotic arm moved a gel model back and forth in the MR scanner to simulate the liver movement inside the body. At the same time, the gel phantom was exposed to focused ultrasound, and the MRI scanner monitored the temperature distribution. “The results match our expectations,” says Haase. “Now, we can pursue the next steps.”

“The results match our expectations,” Haase said. “Now, we can pursue the next steps.”

The researchers plan to test the system on human patients in mid-2018, followed by medical product certification with an industry partner. They see promise using the ultrasound system to treat other organs including the kidney and pancreas – even the lungs.

[Want to stay more on top of MDO content? Subscribe to our weekly e-newsletter.]

 

 

Related Articles Read More >

Galien Foundation 2022 nominees
18 of the world’s most innovative medical technologies
Butterfly IQ handheld ultrasound
Butterfly Network turns to Cadence Clarity 3D Solver to boost its handheld ultrasound system
Abbott FreeStyle Libre 3 CGM sensor
FreeStyle Libre 3, other Abbott products recognized at CES Innovation Awards
Tech bridges gap between sales reps and surgeons

DeviceTalks Weekly.

May 13, 2022
Our Pre-Post-DeviceTalks Boston episode, also MedtronicTalks replay with Gastro CMO Austin Chiang
See More >

MDO Digital Edition

Digital Edition

Subscribe to Medical Design & Outsourcing. Bookmark, share and interact with the leading medical design engineering magazine today.

MEDTECH 100 INDEX

Medtech 100 logo
Market Summary > Current Price
The MedTech 100 is a financial index calculated using the BIG100 companies covered in Medical Design and Outsourcing.
DeviceTalks

DeviceTalks is a conversation among medical technology leaders. It's events, podcasts, webinars and one-on-one exchanges of ideas & insights.

DeviceTalks

New MedTech Resource

Medical Tubing

Enewsletter Subscriptions

Enewsletter Subscriptions

MassDevice

Mass Device

The Medical Device Business Journal. MassDevice is the leading medical device news business journal telling the stories of the devices that save lives.

Visit Website
MDO ad
Medical Design and Outsourcing
  • MassDevice
  • DeviceTalks
  • MedTech 100 Index
  • Medical Tubing + Extrusion
  • Drug Delivery Business News
  • Drug Discovery & Development
  • Pharmaceutical Processing World
  • R&D World
  • About Us/Contact
  • Advertise With Us
  • Subscribe to Print Magazine
  • Subscribe to E-newsletter
  • Attend our Monthly Webinars
  • Listen to our Weekly Podcasts
  • Join our DeviceTalks Tuesdays Discussion

Copyright © 2022 WTWH Media, LLC. All Rights Reserved. Site Map | Privacy Policy | RSS

Search Medical Design & Outsourcing

  • Home
  • Medical Device Business
    • Mergers & Acquisitions
    • Financial
    • Regulatory
  • Applications
    • Cardiovascular
    • Devices
    • Imaging
    • Implantables
    • Medical Equipment
    • Orthopedic
    • Surgical
  • Technologies
    • Contract Manufacturing
    • Components
    • Electronics
    • Extrusions
    • Materials
    • Motion Control
    • Prototyping
    • Pumps
    • Tubing
  • Med Tech Resources
    • DeviceTalks Tuesdays
    • Digital Editions
    • eBooks
    • Manufacturer Search
    • Medical Device Handbook
    • MedTech 100 Index
    • Podcasts
    • Print Subscription
    • The Big 100
    • Webinars / Digital Events
    • Whitepapers
    • Video
  • 2022 Leadership in MedTech
    • 2022 Leadership Voting!
    • 2021 Winners
    • 2020 Winners
  • Women in Medtech