The next step in the explosive interest in focused ultrasound may well be thanks to a Vanderbilt research team's online posting of instructions for their new benchtop preclinical "do-it-yourself" system.

Charles Caskey, Ph.D., and Will Grissom, Ph.D., at the university’s Institute of Imaging Science (VIIS) decided to address the technical difficulty of configuring focused ultrasound (FUS) equipment and the limited number of commercial machines available at present.

"The lack of well-described, accessible, pre-clinical focused ultrasound systems limits progress and decreases repeatability of new developments,” Dr. Caskey told the Focused Ultrasound Foundation website. “Our open-source system can deliver repeatable, precise, and quantifiable thermal and mechanical focused ultrasound over an extended period in small animals.”

The hope is that the Vanderbilt DIY system, which combines hardware instructions and software available for downloading, will give a boost to further study of FUS by researchers and doctors worldwide. The publication of "the hardware blueprints and open-source software" permits others to create systems with which to do MR-guided FUS studies.

The system "allows fine control over FUS-induced temperature rise in a small animal model. It includes MR temperature feedback and closed-loop control of each sonication," according to the website.

While the present DIY effort is "basic" relative to commercial systems, “the availability of a robust, cost-effective, MRgFUS system will lower the barrier for the increasing number of cross-disciplinary researchers who wish to enter this rapidly evolving field,” Grissom advised.

The blueprints and programs for small-animal MR systems are now available on GitHub and on the VUIIS website.

FUS has reached a "tipping point", and is now "approved or under investigation to treat nearly 60 conditions ranging from neurological disorders to cancers, pain and even hypertension," Jessica L. Foley, Ph.D., chief scientific officer of the Focused Ultrasound Foundation, told HCB News in its April magazine.

"Pre-clinical evidence is mounting, demonstrating that focused ultrasound can enhance the immune response to cancer and/or enhance the effects of promising cancer immunotherapies such as checkpoint inhibitors," she noted, adding that soon, should initial clinical trials of FUS prove successful, "this could open the door to a promising new combination approach in the treatment of advanced cancer."

Many are now convinced that this offers tremendous promise — even beyond cancer treatment. In a recent video, University of Rome's Dr. Allessandro Napoli called it "the future of surgery." Former FDA commissioner and former Director of the National Cancer Institute Dr. Andrew von Eschenbach, noted that "this is a new tool, a tool we never had at our disposal before." And Stanford University's Dr. Pejman Ghanouni described the enormous potential range of FUS applications in the future. "If you can imagine it, someone is trying to use focused ultrasound to treat it."

So exciting is this new tool that it has sparked the imagination of those beyond just the research and health care worlds. In his 2015 novel, "The Tumor," famed fiction writer John Grisham created a fictional patient with a fatal malignant tumor. Despite surgery, radiation and chemotherapy patient "Paul" dies.

Author Grisham then creates an alternative future, in which Paul's tumor is discovered in 2025, after FUS is available to treat it. The tumor is successfully managed with FUS, and turned into a chronic condition that eventually kills him, but not before he has a chance to live a fuller life.

"When I learned about focused ultrasound and its potential to change lives," Grisham stated on the Focused Ultrasound Foundation website, "I knew it was a story worth telling. This is the most important book I have ever written. I have found no other cause that can potentially save so many lives."