A team at the University of Virginia (UVA Health) led by Daniel Sheeran, MD, associate professor of radiology and medical imaging, has begun treating patients using HistoSonics’ Edison histotripsy system for liver tumors. The treatments are the first clinical histotripsy procedures in the state.
Histotripsy noninvasively destroys tissue in the liver by using focused ultrasound to produce controlled acoustic cavitation that mechanically liquifies targeted liver tissue without heating. The procedure was invented by the late Charles A. Cain, PhD, Zhen Xu, PhD, and a team at the University of Michigan.
In October 2023, histotripsy was cleared by the US Food and Drug Administration, and the Edison system is the first and only such platform available in the US. According to HistoSonics, the system has been adopted at more than 50 medical centers across the US and has been used to treat over 1,500 patients.
“The UVA Health team is proud to pioneer this noninvasive treatment option for patients in Virginia with liver tumors,” said Dr. Sheeran. “I want to thank the hard work and dedication of many individuals who have made this possible.”
“The availability of histotripsy in Virginia marks a pivotal step forward for liver cancer care and represents significant progress in expanding the reach of focused ultrasound,” said Neal F. Kassell, MD, founder and chairman of the Focused Ultrasound Foundation. “It’s especially rewarding to see this innovation reaching patients here in our home state, having supported some of the early-stage research that helped establish the feasibility of noninvasive histotripsy for treating liver tumors.”
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