The Tumor: A Non-Legal Thriller (4 page)

Chapter 6

The End—Revised Version

The tumor will eventually take Paul’s life. However, focused ultrasound therapy could transform a fatal condition into one that is chronic, but manageable. In contrast to the best current treatment circa 2015, the futuristic ultrasound therapy depicted here circa 2025 could potentially be accomplished on an outpatient basis without multiple days of hospitalization; without surgery and its attendant risks of infection and complications like blood clots and brain damage; without the harmful effects of radiation; and with minimal side effects of chemotherapy due to focused drug delivery. The net result could be a dramatic improvement in the quality and longevity of countless lives, and decreased cost of treatment.

How many years will it add? At this time, the answer is uncertain. Clinical trials for brain tumors have just begun, and the patients selected for these trials represent the most desperate of cases. Much more research is needed.

Researchers believe, with caution, that five additional years are realistic. Perhaps ten.

Who wouldn’t bargain for ten more years, especially with a high quality of life?

With time, research, and improved technology, neurosurgeons are hopeful that a guy like Paul can live to the age of 45 or even 50, long enough to see his children mature.

Chapter 7

The Present

Focused ultrasound is a new, revolutionary, groundbreaking, non-invasive therapeutic technology that has the potential to transform the treatment of a variety of serious medical disorders in addition to brain tumors, improve outcomes, and decrease the cost of care. It could become an alternative to, or complement for, traditional surgery, radiation therapy, and drug delivery. Focused ultrasound could result in fewer complications, such as damage to normal tissue, infection, hemorrhage, and pain, as well as shorten recovery times. By providing safer and more effective therapy, it could reduce death, disability, and suffering for millions of people around the world.

Focused ultrasound utilizes intersecting beams of high-frequency sound concentrated accurately and precisely on tissue deep in the body, much as sunlight passing through a magnifying glass can be focused to burn a hole in a leaf.

Table 1

At the point where the beams converge, the ultrasound energy induces a variety of biological effects while surrounding structures and tissues remain undamaged (
table 1
).

Magnetic resonance or ultrasound imaging is used to identify, guide, and control the treatment in real time.

In the theoretical example used in this all too common story, focused ultrasound treatment of the malignant brain tumor controlled but did not eradicate it. The alternative treatment provided years of high quality of life to a patient with an ultimately fatal condition. The treatment of brain tumors is not the only area of medicine in which focused ultrasound therapy shows promising results. There are many more applications, including uterine fibroids, prostate cancer, and essential tremor, where focused ultrasound treatment could potentially cure the disease.

Today, focused ultrasound is in various stages of development for treating over 50 diseases and conditions, including hypertension, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases, and tumors of the brain, liver, pancreas, and lung (
table 2
). But despite the progress so far, much work remains to be done before focused ultrasound can be widely used to treat large numbers of patients.

Unfortunately, it often takes decades for a new therapeutic technology like focused ultrasound to become widely adopted as a mainstream standard of care.

Table 2

Table 3

Every delay in the availability of focused ultrasound results in unnecessary death, disability, and suffering for countless people.

There are numerous steps in the complicated process of evolution from an idea to laboratory research to widespread patient treatment.

It requires the involvement of a large number of organizations that have different agendas and timelines for decision making (
table 3
).

Table 4