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Simple Summary: Locoregional hyperthermia has been widely used in combination with radiation therapy in several cancer types, including radiorecurrent tumors. Radiorecurrent prostate cancer is a challenging clinical situation, with few treatments available. Reirradiation combined with hyperthermia represents an appealing treatment strategy, although few studies have been reported to date. We aimed to design a specific transperineal focused ultrasound transducer for prostate cancer regional deep hyperthermia treatment, apt to ensure optimal target coverage and patient comfort. The existing prostate transducers (endorectal or transurethral) are not designed for treatments longer than 1h and are able to act upon limited volumes only. Design, embodiment, and experimental study of a novel concept of extracorporeal phased array ultrasound transducer for prostate cancer regional deep hyperthermia treatments using a transperineal acoustic window is presented. An optimized design of hyperthermia applicator was derived from a modelling software where acoustic and thermal fields were computed based on anatomical data. Performance tests have been experimentally conducted on gel phantoms and tissues, under 3T MRI guidance using PRFS thermometry. Feedback controlled hyperthermia (ΔT = 5 °C during 20min) was performed on two ex vivo lamb carcasses with prostate mimicking pelvic tissue, to demonstrate capability of spatio-temporal temperature control and to assess potential risks and side effects. Our optimization approach yielded a therapeutic ultrasound transducer consisting of 192 elements of variable shape and surface, pseudo randomly distributed on 6 columns, using a frequency of 700 kHz. Radius of curvature was 140 mm and active water circulation was included for cooling. The measured focusing capabilities covered a volume of 24 × 50 × 60 mm3. Acoustic coupling of excellent quality was achieved. No interference was detected between sonication and MR acquisitions. On ex vivo experiments the target temperature elevation of 5 °C was reached after 5 min and maintained during another 15 min with the predictive temperature controller showing 0.2 °C accuracy. No significant temperature rise was observed on skin and bonny structures. Reported results represent a promising step toward the implementation of transperineal ultrasound hyperthermia in a pilot study of reirradiation in prostate cancer patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focused ultrasound surgery (FUS) is a non-invasive method for tissue ablation that has the potential for complete and controlled local tumour destruction with minimal side effects. The treatment of abdominal organs such as the liver, however, requires particular technological support in order to enable a safe, efficient and effective treatment. As FUS is applied from outside the patient's body, suitable imaging methods, such as magnetic resonance imaging or diagnostic ultrasound, are needed to guide and track the procedure. To facilitate an efficient FUS procedure in the liver, the organ motion during breathing and the partial occlusion by the rib cage need to be taken into account in real time, demanding a continuous patient-specific adaptation of the treatment configuration. Modelling the patient's respiratory motion and combining this with tracking data improves the accuracy of motion predictions. Modelling and simulation of the FUS effects within the body allows the use of treatment planning and has the potential to be used within therapy to increase knowledge about the patient status. This article describes integrated model-based software for patient-specific modelling and prediction for FUS treatments of moving abdominal organs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]