Rice-led study finds focused ultrasound therapy improves cancer treatment

By Raji Natarajan,

Special to Rice News

Combining an existing small-molecule protein therapy called tumor necrosis factor related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL) with focused ultrasound (FUS) can significantly reduce tumor size and burden in prostate cancer models, according to a new study published in Advanced Science by researchers at Rice University and Vanderbilt University.

Around the world, about 10 million people die of cancer each year. This collaborative study, led by Michael King, the E.D. Butcher Professor of Bioengineering in the George R. Brown School of Engineering and Computing at Rice, and Charles Caskey, associate professor in radiology and radiological sciences at Vanderbilt, is the first to demonstrate that low-intensity mechanical force in combination with TRAIL can treat cancers.

The study sheds new light on how low-intensity focused ultrasound and soluble TRAIL specifically destroy cancer cells within the compact environment of a primary prostate cancer lesion.

Urgency for safe, effective therapy for prostate cancer

"There is urgent need to improve how we treat advanced and recurrent prostate cancer, which is the second-leading cause of death among men in the United States and is the most frequently diagnosed cancer in more than 100 countries," said King, who is a Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas Scholar. "We have now found a safe, effective and noninvasive way to enhance the antitumor effects of a specific cancer drug (TRAIL), a promising finding which we are hopeful can soon be translated for clinical care."

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