Low intensity ultrasound has been successfully utilized as part of cancer treatments in various forms. It has increased tumor cell membrane permeability and their constituents (sonodynamic therapy); increased intracellular absorption of chemotherapy agents into cancer cells via their microbubbles (ultrasound-mediated chemotherapy); promoted bone healing as well as antivascular effects against cancer neovasculature; and promoted healing.
Background
Every day, over 50 million cells die within your body – most through natural processes known as apoptosis but occasionally by injury or infection. When it comes to cancer cells, an effective immune system should recognize between these processes and invaders, and attack cancer without harming healthy tissue. Unfortunately for patients suffering recurrent or metastatic breast carcinoma however, tumors often bypass immune destruction and continue to grow uncontrollably.
Breast cancer is a complex illness with numerous mutations and biological responses, making diagnosis and treatment complex. Accordingly, the National Cancer Institute recommends regular screening for relapsing or advanced forms, while early stage patients should seek preventative therapy in order to minimize its recurrence.
Bioresonance analysis is an efficient diagnostic tool in this regard as it can identify abnormal wavelengths produced by cancer cells and compare them to healthy tissue, providing practitioners with information needed to select an optimal course of treatment and identify multiple stresses which may contribute to recurrence of cancer cell formation.
Studies have demonstrated that focused ultrasound can open the Blood-Brain Barrier and allow chemotherapeutic drugs to pass through into brain tumors, providing effective chemotherapies a pathway into tumors. When used on murine lymphoma models, intraperitoneal bleomycin combined with ultrasound was found to suppress tumor growth; similarly when camptothecin was directly insonated into implanted fibrosarcoma tumors on mice (Tomizawa et al 2001).
Sonodynamic therapy is similar to photodynamic therapy but differs in that it uses low-intensity diagnostic ultrasound at therapeutic frequencies instead of visible light. Ultrasound induced cavitation of microbubbles containing sonsensitizer causes reactive oxygen species that kill nearby rapidly dividing cancer cells (Zheng et al 2012).
Methods
Studies conducted in vitro have demonstrated that sonication can increase cancer cell uptake of chemotherapy agents, and when combined with drug-loaded microbubbles it can increase their concentration within tumor tissues (see Ultrasound-Enhanced Therapy). When insonated human colon carcinoma and murine mammary cancer cell lines were exposed to either cisplatin, cetuximab or cetuximab they displayed increased cell uptake and subsequent apoptosis; similarly irinotecan, doxorubicin or cetuximab led to similar results (see Ultrasound-Enhanced Therapy).
Studies conducted in vivo have demonstrated the ability of ultrasound to penetrate and open the blood-brain barrier (BBB). Sonication combined with drug-loaded microbubbles is used to open this barrier and enable delivery of chemotherapeutic agents directly into brain tumors while decreasing toxicity to contiguous normal tissues. When carmustine (bis-chloroethylnitrosourea) was loaded into microbubbles for insonation against implanted brain neoplasms, control was observed along with improvement of tumor progression as well as increased animal survival times.
Chemotherapeutic agents injected into solid tumors may be poorly distributed due to limited vascularity and lymphatic drainage, leading to high concentrations of drug within tumor tissue that could result in toxic side effects.
Sonodynamic therapy employs ultrasound-induced cavitation combined with sonosensitizers to generate free radicals and kill nearby rapidly dividing cancer cells. Similar to photodynamic therapy, sonodynamic therapy utilizes continuous low intensity diagnostic ultrasound at therapeutic frequencies instead of light which attenuates rapidly in tissues and has limited penetration.
About 50 million cells die daily through a process known as apoptosis in your body. Unfortunately, cancerous cells sometimes remain alive after this natural cell death process and manage to bypass your immune system, spreading throughout the body without detection by its defenses. Luckily, your immune system can detect natural cell death from cancerous cell invasion and will quickly target and attack it accordingly.
Results
The team discovered that by applying different frequencies and pulses of ultrasound energy directly onto cancer cells, tumors may swell and die without the need for surgery, radiation therapy or chemotherapy treatments. Furthermore, bioresonance could potentially detect early cancer metastases elsewhere on the body.
Mittelstein and his students conducted the research by subjecting cells from various forms of cancer to acoustic energy and measuring their responses to it. They discovered that certain frequencies and pulses of ultrasound caused cancer cells to swell up and die, while others caused them to shrink and expand – likely due to vibrations emitted by acoustic waves and consequent changes in cell membrane pressure.
These results indicate that ultrasound combined with sensitizing molecules could be used to effectively treat various tumors, known as sonodynamic therapy. Ultrasound has been demonstrated to increase BBB permeability through in vitro experiments on tumor cell suspensions and cultures (Bork et al 2008; Sorace et al 2012), thus increasing drug delivery to tumor cells via microbubbles carrying therapeutic agents – for instance when used against murine colon carcinoma and mammary tumor cells it led to their uptake via the BBB and ultimately inducing apoptosis (Watanabe et al 2008).
In another experiment, hepatocellular carcinoma cells that had previously been sensitized with either iodine-containing contrast agents for computed tomography or paramagnetic contrast agents for magnetic resonance imaging were exposed to acoustic energy. The exposure caused an increase in cell membrane permeability which increased uptake of contrast agents by cancer cells – this in turn increased their uptake as well as ultimately leading to their apoptosis (Liu et al 2013).
Similar experiments used microbubbles containing scutellarin to deliver its drug directly into tumor sites using brain insonation (Ting et al., 2012.). This caused decreased tumor growth rates and extended animal survival time.
Conclusions
Over 50 million cells die daily in our bodies due to natural, normal processes (apoptosis). Any remaining cancer cells must be destroyed by our immune systems as soon as they appear; otherwise they will continue growing and spreading into new tumors, thus increasing our mortality risk.
As such, many doctors have turned to focused ultrasound as a means of attacking tumors. Focused ultrasound uses sound waves to target, heat, and kill cancer cells without harming surrounding tissue – this procedure is known as high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU).
This therapy is noninvasive and painless; during the procedure, patients sit comfortably while their clinician moves a probe over their skin with ultrasound waves being delivered through it and absorbed by tumors. Once completed, patients return home for restorative rest after which additional sessions may be necessary.
Low-intensity ultrasound and sonsensitizers have been shown to significantly increase chemotherapy efficacy (sonodynamic therapy). Studies of various tumor types have demonstrated that insonating cancerous tumors while concurrently administering chemotherapy leads to inhibition of tumor growth (suppression); induction of apoptosis; and disruption of tumor blood vessels (e.g. sonoporation).
Focused ultrasound has another potential use in temporarily opening up the blood-brain barrier (BBB). The BBB consists of tight junctions between endothelial cells lining blood vessels in the central nervous system. The passage of nutrients through cellular pathways into the brain is tightly regulated by this barrier; toxic substances and pathogens cannot enter; microbubbles generated using focused ultrasound can temporarily increase its permeability, permitting entry of chemotherapy agents into the brain.
Bioresonance therapy is an emerging complementary cancer therapy method which works by detecting, regulating and neutralizing frequencies that fall outside the healthy frequency range for your body. This technology has quickly gained recognition as a diagnostic and treatment option for many diseases–including cancer.
