Primary Pain Palliation in Bone Metastases Treated With Magnetic Resonance-guided Focused Ultrasound

Magnetic Resonance guided Focused Ultrasound (MRgFUS) has demonstrated to be effective for pain control through thermally-induced cell death and periosteal denervation caused by cortical heating relative to acoustic energy absorption. There is also evidence that a high intensity focused ultrasound beam can penetrate through the cortical bone to the medullary space, producing thermal necrosis of cancer tissue. However, little is known about the potential effects of MRgFUS as first line therapeutic modality for pain palliation in skeletal metastases. Our hypothesis sought to assess the clinical performance of MRgFUS primary treatment of painful bone metastases and determine the potential of this technique for local tumor control.