Therapeutic Ultrasound Team
Location: Royal Marsden, Sutton
Section: Joint Department of Physics
Team Leader: Dr Gail ter Haar
The therapeutic ultrasound team is doing research designed to improve our understanding of the basic science behind the technique of high intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) for the treatment of cancers of the liver and kidney, and to develop a novel clinical device in which we implement our findings. We are also supporting clinical trials of the use of trans-rectal HIFU for the treatment of recurrent prostate cancer.
The basic principle of HIFU is that a high power ultrasound beam is brought to a tight focus at a distance from its source and is used to rapidly heat tissue to temperatures which result in cell death. Only cells in the focus are killed, overlying and surrounding tissue is unharmed. If the source is outside the body, this represents a non-invasive treatment for tumours lying deep below the skin.
Please click below to download the Therapeutic Ultrasound Annual Research Report 2006
In the Joint Department of Physics
