Bladder Tumors

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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 bladder tumors. This novel technology focuses beams of ultrasound energy precisely and accurately on targets deep in the body without damaging surrounding normal tissue.

How the Works
Where the beams converge, focused ultrasound produces precise ablation (thermal destruction of tissue) enabling bladder tumors to be treated without surgery.

One preclinical study in the 1990s found that focused ultrasound could be used to destroy bladder tissue. There has been some recent work looking at the concept of using focused ultrasound to provide organ sparing surgery for patients with bladder cancer at UCLA. This preclinical work showed that one can use focused ultrasound in a transmural, full thickness ablation of an intact bladder wall. Further work needs to be done to demonstrate the impact of these approaches in patient care.

Advantages
The primary options for treatment of bladder cancer include medication and 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 also reach the desired target without damaging surrounding tissue, and it can be repeated, if necessary.

Clinical Trials

clinical trial for urothelial cancer with metastatic lesions (and other tumors) has begun at the University of Virginia. Urothelial cancer is the most common type of bladder cancer.

Regulatory Approval and Reimbursement

Focused ultrasound treatment for bladder tumors is not yet approved by regulatory bodies or covered by medical insurance companies.

Notable Papers

Panzone J, Byler T, Bratslavsky G, Goldberg H. Applications of Focused Ultrasound in the Treatment of Genitourinary Cancers. Cancers (Basel). 2022 Mar 17;14(6):1536. doi: 10.3390/cancers14061536.

Weitz AC, Lee NS, Yoon CW, Bonyad A, Goo KS, Kim S, Moon S, Jung H, Zhou Q, Chow RH, Shung KK. Functional Assay of Cancer Cell Invasion Potential Based on Mechanotransduction of Focused Ultrasound. Front Oncol. 2017 Aug 7;7:161. doi: 10.3389/fonc.2017.00161. eCollection 2017.

de Castro Abreu AL, Ukimura O, Shoji S, Leslie S, Chopra S, Marien A, Matsugasumi T, Dharmaraja A, Wong K, Zaba N, Ma Y, Desai MM, Gill IS. Robotic transmural ablation of bladder tumors using high-intensity focused ultrasound: Experimental study. Int J Urol. 2016 Jun;23(6):501-8. doi: 10.1111/iju.13083.

Niedworok C, Shaleva A, Rübben H, Stenzl A. [Organ-sparing treatment of bladder cancer]. Urologe A. 2016 May;55(5):609-14. doi: 10.1007/s00120-016-0086-5. German.

Bastide C, Paparel P, Guillonneau B. Minimally invasive surgery in oncologic urology: a recent review. Curr Opin Urol. 2008;18(2):190-7.

Watkin NA, Morris SB, Rivens IH, Woodhouse CRJ, ter Haar GR. A feasibility study for the non-invasive treatment of superficial bladder tumors with focused ultrasound. Br J Urol. 1996;78(5):715-21.

Click here for additional references from PubMed.

Clinical Trials