Ultrasound To Be Used By Scientists In Breast Cancer Treatment

Breast Cancer Now, a charitable organization based in the UK has stated that 11,500 women die from breast cancer each year. This just goes to show how deadly this type of cancer can be for women. Cancer kills by spreading to other locations in the body, particularly in various important organs. This is a condition called metastasis and is the main cause of the death of a patient.

Chemotherapy Treatment

To treat this type of cancer, doctors would often use chemotherapy or radiation therapy, also referred to as radiotherapy. In chemotherapy, doctors use chemical substances to kill cancer cells. Radiotherapy involves subjecting the patient to high doses of radiation to shrink tumors and kill cancer cells. Both treatment methods have varying degrees of success.

New Ultrasound Treatment

Scientists recently declared a new way of fighting breast cancer by using ultrasound. This process involves the injection of small cell-like bubbles of medication that will go through the lymphatic system where it is believed the disease spreads. Scientists claim they can prevent this from happening using the groundbreaking method.

How It Works

The bubbles, called vesicles by scientists, reach the breast cancer-ridden lymph nodes in the armpit. It does this by using a network of organs and tissues that help remove toxins from the body. When a powerful ultrasound is placed in the armpit, the bubbles burst. The anti-cancer drugs which are carried by the bubbles then spread in the targeted area, thereby preventing the disease from spreading to other locations.

According to the lead researcher, Professor Tetsuya Kodama of Tohoku University in Japan, the technique has great potential in the field of cancer treatment. Professor Kodama said that this new method could be used to treat lymph nodes that have been overrun by metastatic tumor cells.

According to Professor Kodama, their method has already been tested on mice infected with a form of breast tumor similar to what humans have. The team of Professor Kodama first checked whether vesicles could go through the lymphatic system. Breast cancer cells were then injected into the mice to see if they can treat the disease using the method. The study and its results were all published in Scientific Reports.