The University Health System recently began the first clinical trial in the United States testing the efficacy of high-intensity focused ultrasound on treating fibroadenomas, benign tumors found in the breasts.
Fibroadenomas are hard, lump-like masses within the breast that often feel like marbles, which can grow or shrink in size on their own.
“We don’t currently know what causes fibroadenomas, but there are some theories that it could be due to viruses as a child,” said Dr. David R. Brenin, lead investigator in the University’s trial. “Fibroadenomas are a common tumor, most commonly found women in their 20s and 30s. They don’t have malignant potential [potential to become cancerous], but they are palpable.”
Though fibroadenomas lack the potential to become cancerous, they can be bothersome and currently can only be treated by surgical removal, which leaves a scar. The high-intensity focused ultrasound treatment has the potential to break apart the masses in the breast, allowing the surrounding tissue to heal.
“The ultrasound is a conical device that produces ultrasound waves that pass through the skin and are concentrated at a focal point deep to the surface of the breast,” Brenin said. “The sound waves heat up the tissue within the focal point, disrupting it physically.”
The treatment also allows doctors to see the treatment in real-time. Other treatments, such as surgical removal of a mass or the ablation of a mass using a liquid nitrogen probe are effective require future scans to determine whether treatment was successful.
“Our goal is to get rid of bothersome symptoms,” Brenin said. “Over time after treatment, the tumor reduces in size by about 80 percent and becomes a softer consistency.”
High-intensity focused ultrasound is currently used in Japan and Europe to successfully treat breast cancer and seizure tracks in the brain, helping to reduce debilitating tremors in patients with neurological disorders and tumors in the uterus.
“It will probably require one more study before FDA approval, but we hope to treat breast cancers after this as well,” Brenin said.
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