Fighting cancer with 20 000 watts per square centimeter

Whether in maternity care, for the diagnosis of gallstones or for the heart examination: Ultrasound belongs to the standard methods of medicine. Up to now, it has been used above all for the diagnosis of diseases. However, if the intensity of the ultrasound waves is increased and focused on a tumour, it could also be used for the treatment of cancer and destroy it in a targeted way. Before this novel therapy can be used just as widely as the ultrasound for diagnostic purposes, it will be necessary to conduct some more re-search work. The aim of the research is to create an improved basis for therapy plan-ning and control. In order to increase the safety of the treatment and its effectiveness, it should be possible, for example, to reliably determine the power of the ultrasound. Sci-entists of the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB) have within the scope of a European research project now further developed an established measuring method which can determine the power of high intensity ultrasound up to 500 watts. A round robin comparison with the European partner institutes was successfully concluded and proved the correct mode of operation of the measuring method.