Partnership for High Intensity Focused Ultrasound

Siemens Medical Solutions (Erlangen, Germany) and Chongqing Haifu (HAIFU) Technology Co., Ltd. (Chongqing, People's Republic of China) have signed a contract to jointly develop a magnetic resonance imaging- (MRI)-guided high intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) therapy system.

The goal of the collaboration is to combine Haifu's therapy technology with Siemens' expertise in high-field MRI technology. Key applications include women's health treatments such as benign uterine fibroids and cancer as well as malignant and benign tumors of the liver, kidney, pancreas, and bone. The equipment and process have already received CE marking after a series of liver and kidney trials at the Churchill Hospital, Oxford, UK.

The collaboration between Siemens and HAIFU includes the ability to precisely visualize temperature distributions inside the human body. Further developments involve MR applications for diagnosis, therapy planning, as well as outcome assessment. Patient treatment will be performed on a special HIFU patient bed inside the bore of Siemens' range of high field scanners.

Haifu's distributor outside the Far East is Ultrasound Therapeutics, Ltd. (www.utlltd.com). Haifu provides a broad spectrum of applications in research and clinical practice. The inability to treat large tissue volumes in short timescales with good visualization of the target volume has hindered the clinical acceptance of the technique. Haifu has been able to develop a technology that overcomes this limitation.

Prof. Zhibiao Wang, President of Haifu stated, "We have had great international success with US-guided HIFU treatment but we believe that MR-guided HIFU will provide an added direction and more options with Siemens advanced MR technology and offer more exciting developments for the future of HIFU technology.”

Chongqing Haifu (HIFU) Technology Co. Ltd. has its own Clinical Center for Tumor Therapy and cooperates with the Institute of Ultrasound Engineering in Medicine at Chongqing University of Medical Sciences.




Related Links:
Siemens Medical Solutions
Chongqing Haifu Technology