High intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) ablation

The ideal cancer therapy not only induces the death of all localized tumor cells without damage to surrounding normal tissue, but also activates a systemic antitumor immunity. High intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) has the potential to be such a treatment, as it can non-invasively ablate a targeted tumor below the skin surface, and may subsequently augment host antitumor immunity. This chapter is to introduce the history and principles of HIFU tumor ablation, and its biological effects on the tumor microenvironment. It will review increasing pre-clinical and clinical evidence suggesting that HIFU ablation may enhance host antitumor immunity, and discuss its potential mechanisms and roles in terms of local recurrence and metastasis control after HIFU treatment.