Using ultrasound in cancer treatment

Los Angeles Times : Ultrasound can enhance the effects of radiation in the treatment of cancer, according to a study by Gregory Czarnota, of the University of Toronto’s Sunnybrook Research Institute, and colleagues. Traditional radiation treatments, which require fairly high doses, can affect the blood vessels feeding a tumorâmdash;by causing their cells to self-destruct. To achieve a similar effect, Czarnota and coworkers sent microbubbles of gas encapsulated in a shell of a lipid protein through the circulatory system of mice and then burst the bubbles with pulses of ultrasound. They found that by combining radiation with the microbubbles–ultrasound technique, they could significantly reduce the radiation dosage required to treat a tumor.