People suffering from brain tumors may be able to receive a treatment that wipes them out in one session instead of multiple chemotherapy treatments.

A team of ISU scientists are researching ways that ultrasounds may be used to destroy brain tumors.

Ron Roberts, adjunct associate professor for the Center of Nondestructive Evaluation, said there are two major uses for ultrasounds — imaging and destroying tissue,.

“We have to be very precise. Being just a millimeter off can have disastrous effects,” he said.

Roberts compared the technique used by the scientists to using a magnifying glass to focus sunlight. When a finger is put through the light that is not in focus, nothing will happen, but if the finger is put in the bright spot, it will burn, he said.

“The same idea is being applied in the research. The sunlight is the ultrasound which passes through tissue without harming it until it gets to a point being focused,” Roberts said. “The energy focuses on one spot and cooks the tissue.”

The project is aimed at burning cells inside the body to treat cancer.

The ultrasound generates heat, and when there is sufficient energy at the beam-like focus, that energy can burn the cells, said Viren Amin, associate scientist for the Center of Nondestructive Evaluation.

“The sufficient rise in temperature will kill the cell, and the body then absorbs the destroyed tissue,” Amin said.

Roberts said there are two ways in which ultrasounds are being used to destroy tumors.

Aspiration is a process in which high-powered ultrasounds tear the tumor apart and a device then extracts the tissue in a suction procedure.

The other method, which ISU scientists are working with, is non-invasive and uses high-powered ultrasounds to cook and kill the tissue.

There are challenges the team needs to overcome before the ultrasound technology can be used to destroy brain tumors.

“The ultrasound beam is wider away from the focus, which means the energy is spread out and does not kill tissues in that area. It goes through the body without killing other tissues,” Amin said.

The difference between radiation treatments and the treatment being studied at Iowa State is that in radiation, multiple treatments are necessary.

The team began the research June 1 and plans to continue studying the issue for the next two years.

They received a $350,000 research grant from the Roy J. Carver Charitable Trust.

“Next week, we will be doing the first experiment. We’ll probably go to Hy-Vee and get a ribeye steak or a piece of liver since it will have biological tissue,” Amin said. “

Then in the second year of research, we will most likely do some kind of animal testing.”