How UChicago Medicine can destroy liver tumors using sound waves, a procedure called histotripsy
UChicago Medicine is using a new technology to destroy liver tumors without radiation, chemotherapy or even cutting the skin. Called histotripsy, it destroys tumors using sound waves.
Amber Sikes was diagnosed with cancer about six years ago.
"I was diagnosed with neuro-endocrine cancer," she said. "It started in my bowel and spread to my liver."
The initial news about her diagnosis was not encouraging.
"I was told I couldn't have surgery, I was told I couldn't have any more children," she said. "I was a new mom when I was first diagnosed; my oldest child was four months old. I was trying to learn."
But now one of her liver tumors is gone thanks to the new procedure pioneered by UChicago Medicine called histotripsy.
"Histotripsy is the ability to treat a tumor without radiation and without doing anything invasive, using just ultrasound technology alone," explained Dr. Osman Ahmed, an interventional radiologist with UChicago Medicine. "With using sound waves alone."
Ahmed has performed the procedure and explained how it works.
"The patient has a water bath, it's like a little swimming pool, and we put the robot in the water," he said. "Think of sonar, it's a good medium for the waves to go through."
The ultrasound waves cause the cancer cells to vibrate and bubble, destroying them, while leaving the health cells around them unharmed.
The sound waves are so targeted, they can be used in sensitive and delicate area, like near blood vessels.
"We can only do as much as the tools in our toolbox can do, and it's great to have it," Ahmed said. "When we run out of tools we run out of options, but having another tool is a step in the right direction."
Sikes said after her treatment she had no pain, she was able to eat, and she didn't have any recovery.
"It was quite rewarding," she said.
While her cancer journey is not over yet, the histotripsy treatment got her through a major step and gives her hope for the rest of her care.
"I've been surviving this cancer for six years now," she said. "When you go through treatments and scans and you're not feeling so great, and you have to miss work, when you hear there's a procedure to eliminate a tumor with noninvasive techniques, it's amazing. It's a reward."
Histotripsy was approved for use with liver cancer in 2024. The procedure was invented at the University of Michigan, but UChicago Medicine was one of the hospitals that tested it before it was approved.