Many malignant tumors express themselves by metastasizing into bone structures. This condition is usually associated with severe pain that is not easy to manage. Existing methods of helping to relieve pain, such as drug therapy or irradiation of bone, are often not as effective as desired.

Now Philips Sonalleve MR-HIFU offers an effective way to thermally ablate the nerve endings in the periosteum and thus eliminate the pain caused by bone metastases. One advantage of MR-HIFU therapy is its non-invasive nature: the sound waves are focused through the intact skin into the target area, leaving the surrounding tissue unaffected. This technique does not have as many side effects as other types of cancer treatments. The relatively short procedure can make a patient’s pain score drop from extreme values to zero. This can allow patients to resume more of their normal social activities, sleep restfully, and undergo other treatments with more comfort.

The HIFU system and coil elements are integrated in the Sonalleve patient table. During the therapy, ultrasound waves are focused onto the target volume inside the bone metastasis and the sensitive nerves surrounding the bone. Real-time monitoring via temperature sensitive MR imaging is used to obtain uniform temperature distribution.