Histotripsy 2.0 available for liver and breast cancer clinical trials in HK

Asia’s first histotripsy 2.0 system, introduced at the Chinese University Hong Kong (CUHK) recently, will be used in clinical trials to treat liver cancer patients from early 2025. The novel focal therapy will also be evaluated in patients with early-stage breast cancer.

The new histotripsy system – the second in Hong Kong following introduction of an earlier system at the University of Hong Kong (HKU) in August 2024 – enables more precise and efficient focal therapy through provision of comprehensive and specific feedback data on the ablation process. It is equipped with next-generation hardware and supports enhanced functions through system and software upgrades.

A total of 30 patients with liver cancer will receive histotripsy 2.0 treatment in clinical trials through support from the Li Ka Shing Foundation, which donated the system, together with CUHK’s Faculty of Medicine and the Prince of Wales Hospital (PWH) Charitable Foundation.

“Since the arrival of the first histotripsy system in Hong Kong, treatment has been arranged for 30 patients with liver cancer in 90 days,” said Mr Ka-Shing Li. “This game-changing technology is a gift of hope, health and life. This low-cost, high-efficacy treatment option can tremendously lessen the financial burden on patients and their families, and more importantly, the public healthcare system.”

The CUHK-PWH team recently treated a middle-aged liver cancer patient with histotripsy. “The patient had a long-standing history of chronic hepatitis and cirrhosis, and underwent partial hepatectomy for liver cancer several years ago. Upon ultrasound finding of two new liver lesions recently, histotripsy treatment was arranged,” reported Professor Simon Ng of the Department of Surgery, CUHK. “Satisfactory efficacy and good postprocedural recovery were observed. The patient remains well clinically and continues to be followed up.”

“The noninvasive histotripsy procedure involves 10 minutes of preparation, 10 minutes of planning, and 15–25 minutes of treatment,” said Professor James Griffith of the Department of Imaging and Interventional Radiology, CUHK. “The use of very-short, high-amplitude ultrasound pulses to disrupt and liquefy targeted tumour cells makes the treatment highly effective and precise, with no damage to important surrounding tissues.”

Upcoming research in breast cancer

Experts from CUHK’s Departments of Clinical Oncology, Surgery, and Imaging and Interventional Radiology will evaluate the use of histotripsy as focal therapy for early-stage breast cancer in upcoming studies. The technology team is currently designing new machine head and ultrasound transducer that can be utilized for breast imaging, localization, and histotripsy ablation of breast lesions.

“Focal therapy is a future direction for breast cancer treatment and has been proposed as an alternative to surgery in selected patients, including those with low-grade, unifocal, node-negative, and small tumours, as well as those who are poor candidates for or decline surgery,” said Professor Winnie Chu of the Department of Imaging and Interventional Radiology, CUHK. “Advantages include treatment in an outpatient setting, use of local anaesthesia, faster recovery, improved cosmesis after treatment, lack of toxicity, and possibility for combination with other therapies.”

“The use of focused ultrasound makes histotripsy treatment particularly suitable for Asian women, who have higher breast density than Caucasian women,” Chu added.