“Well, it’s called histotripsy and it’s essentially a new and very different way for us to treat tumors.”
Dr. Clifford Cho is the chief medical officer at UM Health-West and leads the histotripsy program. Essentially, histotripsy uses focused ultrasound waves to target cancerous tissue, ultimately destroying and liquifying the tumor. Those dead cells are then safely absorbed back into the body.
“In addition to being non-invasive, it’s also remarkably precise, and so it’s just the latest but it’s qualitatively different from all the other sort of options that we have for tumor treatment.”
Histotripsy was originally conceived twenty years ago at University of Michigan Health in Ann Arbor and was approved by the FDA in October of last year.
“They scheduled me for histotripsy here yesterday. I went in, couple hours and I was back in bed and feeling great and I’m going home today.”
Greg Allushuski is the first patient to receive histotripsy. He says since the procedure, he’s experienced no pain.
“We can get on with our life. I have no surgery, no chemo, no radiation anymore. We can watch our grandkids growing up.”
A computerized tomography, or CT scan, done on Allushuski showed promising results, and he’ll receive follow-up scans to check the status of his liver over the next few months.
Dr. Cho says histotripsy is already being tried on other forms of cancer such as brain, kidney and pancreatic.
