Novel highly-selective and imaging-based ultrasound cancer treatment with phase-change nano-droplet

Ultrasound has a great potential to be a modality of low invasive cancer treatment of deep-seated tissues such as liver with relatively small equipment size. To overcome the problems of currently available ultrasound cancer treatment systems, we have proposed a cancer treatment method which utilizes a nano-sized particle. The particle, phase-change nano-droplet (PCND), is a precursor of microbubble and exposing a 'phase-change pulse' turns it to a microbubble where needed. The resulting microbubble works as a contrast agent and a therapy sensitizer for ultrasound. We haven established a way to prepare such PCND and investigated if it works as a contrast agent and a therapy sensitizer. Experiments with rats and mice exhibited that our PCND plays the two roles in vivo with systemic administration. We believe these results will lead to a new generation of low invasive cancer treatment.