High intensity focussed ultrasound (HIFU) acts as immunomodulatory against cancer: A review

Abstract

Focused ultrasound has been widely acclaimed to be and used by many to generate highly localized heating to treat cysts and cancerous tumours through a process called Magnetic Resonance guided Focused Ultrasound (MRgFUS) or High Intensity Focused Ultrasound (HIFU). These procedures guided by Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) generally works on lower frequencies than medical diagnostic ultrasound with significantly higher energies. By tweaking, the parameters of the focused ultrasound treatment can induce the immune response through enhanced dendritic cell (DCs) infiltration and activation. Dendritic cells can capture and present activating signals delivered by necrotic tumour cells that remain in-situ after HIFU treatment. The other beneficial side effects of HIFU leads to higher CD4+/CD8+ ratio and increasing CD3+, CD4+, and CD8+ lymphocytes in the circulation. HIFU based therapy ultrasound shown to potentially boost the body’s immune response thus combating the local recurrence of the targeted tumour.