ULTRAFITT

The approach is thus an alternative for conventional radiotherapy with some specific differences: the FUS ablation is an all-or-nothing process (cells are killed or recover completely) and may therefore be repeated several times in case of recurrence, whereas the cumulative radiation dose of radiotherapy to nearby tissues often prevents repeated treatments. MRI guidance provides precise targeting and quantification of the thermal dose (by measuring continuously the temperature throughout the tumor and neighboring tissues). In addition, the local effects of focused ultrasound (due to pressure, temperature, and vibrations) allows the regional deposition of drugs and/or their activation by several mechanisms: 1) local destruction of drug transporting nanoparticles, by vibration; 2) local destruction of drug transporting nanoparticles, by temperature increase; 3) controlled, temporary, opening of natural barriers (cellular membranes, blood vessel walls) allowing an improved passage; 4) accelerated intra-tissue drug diffusion, by ultrasound force, vibration and temperature; 5) local drug activation based on temperature (in particular gene expression in the field of gene therapy). This multi-disciplinary project is the continuation of the developments of this technology for multiple organs within our laboratory and involves a multi-disciplinary team of physicists, informatics specialists, biologists, and physicians. The project contains a technological part, a preclinical work, and a clinical part (treatment of tumors of breast, liver and kidney by ablation).