Liver cancer

Current treatment options for patients with liver tumors are often invasive and can present significant challenges. Many approaches, including surgery radiation and thermal ablation carry the risk of damaging surrounding healthy tissue. This can lead to complications such as impaired liver function, severe tissue damage, injury to nearby organs and toxicity, negatively affecting a patient’s quality of life during or after recovery.

Histotripsy can target tumors attached to, or sounding blood vessels while avoiding injury to those critical structures. While most liver treatments require delaying chemotherapy, histotripsy allows treatment to liver tumors without interrupting other cancer therapies. For the vast majority of histotripsy patients, side effects are minimal and last only a few days.

The histotripsy procedure is done without using incisions, needles or other insertions through the skin. This reduces the chances for infection, bleeding, long recovery times and related complications. Using ultrasound waves, very short pulses are designed to liquify tumors within the liver. During this process, naturally occurring gas bubbles within the targeted tissue expand causing a bubble cloud. The bubble clouds form and collapse instantaneously causing cell death, leaving behind a liquid of proteins and other molecules. The liquid is absorbed by the body, resulting in an immune system response to clear and discard the debris while protecting nontargeted tissue.

Histotripsy is highly precise and effective. Often liver tumors can be destroyed in as little as one treatment, depending on their severity. The procedure is performed under general anesthesia to minimize motion and enhance targeting accuracy. Frequently, the procedure can be performed in an outpatient setting, allowing patients to go home the same day.

If you and your care team determine histotripsy is right for you, you can expect the process to look like:

• You will be asked to adhere to dietary restrictions prior to the procedure.
• General anesthesia will be administered, helping ensure you do not move during the procedure.
• Your doctor will verify the location of the tumor using ultrasound and will position the treatment head over the targeted tissue.
• The doctor will use real time ultrasound to monitor the delivery of high amplitude energy from the treatment head to the targeted tissue. Mild pain in the treatment area after the procedure is common.
• Most patients go home the same day and are back to doing their regular activities very soon.