Methods of using ultrasound waves for sonodynamic therapy

1. A method of producing ultrasound waves for sonodynamic therapy to treat tumor cells harboring a sonosensitizer, comprising:

coupling a sonodynamic therapy device to a skin surface over a treatment region with the tumor cells of a patient, the sonodynamic therapy device comprising: a controller, a patient interface, and a cooling system,

wherein the patient interface comprises an array of piezoelectric ultrasound transducer elements and at least one of a cap, a rigid shell and a flexible shell,

wherein the array of piezoelectric ultrasound transducer elements is coupled to the controller,

wherein the controller detects at least one piezoelectric transducer element in the array of piezoelectric transducer elements and selects a treatment algorithm for the at least one piezoelectric transducer element, wherein an acoustic intensity within the treatment region is in a range of 0.1 W/cm 2 to 50 W/cm 2 to activate the sonosensitizer,

wherein the piezoelectric ultrasound transducer elements are arranged in a grid,

wherein each of the piezoelectric ultrasound transducer elements comprises an emitting surface configured to emit ultrasound waves,

wherein the ultrasound waves are planar or defocused,

driving the array of piezoelectric ultrasound transducer elements with a signal to activate the sonosensitizer in the tumor cells of the patient,

wherein the sonosensitizer comprises a porphyrin compound,

wherein the signal comprises one or more frequencies in a range of 20 kHz to 2 MHz,

wherein the signal is configured to minimize a spatial variation of the acoustic intensity in the treatment region with the tumor cells of the patient with a modulated wave parameter to emit the ultrasound waves with the acoustic intensity to damage the tumor cells in the treatment region of the patient when activating the sonosensitizer,

wherein the signal is modulated by a duty cycle modulated drive signal configured to produce duty cycle modulated acoustic waves, wherein the duty cycle modulated drive signal is configured to generate a temporal average acoustic intensity when activating the sonosensitizer,

wherein the sonodynamic therapy device is configured to acoustically couple the array of piezoelectric ultrasound transducer elements to the skin surface,

wherein the driving the array of piezoelectric transducer elements comprises one or more randomized phases in the signal to promote coverage of the treatment region by the ultrasound waves, and

circulating a fluid in the cooling system, wherein the cooling system is configured to absorb heat through the skin surface over the treatment region.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the controller determines at least one in situ variable selected from the group consisting of: a tissue depth, a tissue volume, a skull thickness, and a temperature, and adaptively modulates the modulated wave parameter to generate the ultrasound waves optimized based on the at least one in situ variable.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the controller determines an in situ variable and adaptively modulates the ultrasound waves to target the treatment region based on the in situ variable.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the acoustic intensity within the treatment region is in a range of 0.1 W/cm 2 to 20 W/cm 2 .

5. The method of claim 1 ,

wherein the signal comprises at least one of the group consisting of: an intra pulse variation and an inter pulse variation,

wherein the one or more phases are configured with a duty cycle to drive each of the piezoelectric ultrasound transducer elements to produce high temporal peak acoustic intensities within the treatment region with a low temporal average acoustic intensity when activating the sonosensitizer for non-thermally ablative treatment to maintain a temperature of the treatment region below 42° C.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the controller drives the array of piezoelectric transducer elements with the signal at a variety of frequencies in a range of 650 kHz to 2 MHz, to emit the ultrasound waves with a temporal average intensity without causing thermal damage to healthy cells in the treatment region.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the controller drives the array of piezoelectric transducer elements with the signal at a variety of frequencies in a range of 650 kHz to 2 MHz to emit a divergent ultrasound field for a non-thermally ablative treatment with a temporal average intensity that does not increase temperature of a healthy tissue in the treatment region above 42° C.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the driving the array of piezoelectric ultrasound transducer elements comprises driving multiple elements with multiple signals.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the patient interface comprises the flexible shell.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein the fluid is configured to acoustically couple the array of piezoelectric ultrasound transducer elements to the flexible shell.

11. The method of claim 1 , further comprising administering a pro drug to the patient, wherein the pro drug comprises aminolevulinic acid (ALA), wherein the ALA results in increased production of the porphyrin compound.

12. A method of producing ultrasound waves for sonodynamic therapy to treat tumor cells harboring a sonosensitizer, comprising:

coupling a sonodynamic therapy device to a skin surface over a treatment region with the tumor cells of a patient,

wherein the sonodynamic therapy device comprises:

a patient interface,

an array of piezoelectric ultrasound transducer elements, and

a controller,

wherein the patient interface comprises at least one of a cap, a rigid shell, and a flexible shell,

wherein each of the piezoelectric ultrasound transducer elements comprises an emitting surface configured to emit a plurality of ultrasound waves, wherein the plurality of ultrasound waves are planar ultrasound or defocused,

driving the array of piezoelectric ultrasound transducer elements with a signal to activate the sonosensitizer in the tumor cells in a brain of the patient,

wherein the sonosensitizer comprises a porphyrin compound,

wherein the signal is configured to minimize a spatial variation of an acoustic intensity in the brain with the tumor cells of the patient with a modulated wave parameter configured to emit the plurality of the ultrasound waves at the acoustic intensity in a range of 0.1 W/cm 2 to 50 W/cm 2 within the treatment region to activate the sonosensitizer in the treatment region to treat cancer in the tumor cells of the patient,

wherein the signal is modulated by a duty cycle modulated drive signal configured to produce a duty cycle modulated pulse sequence,

wherein the duty cycle modulated drive signal comprises a randomized phase configured to drive each of the piezoelectric ultrasound transducer elements to produce a high temporal peak acoustic intensity with a low temporal average acoustic intensity within the treatment region when activating the sonosensitizer,

wherein the controller drives the array of piezoelectric transducer elements with the signal at a frequency in a range of 20 kHz to 2 MHz to emit the plurality of ultrasound waves with the temporal average acoustic intensity without increasing a temperature of a healthy tissue in the treatment region above 42° C.,

wherein the randomized phase promotes coverage of the treatment region by the plurality of ultrasound waves,

wherein the sonodynamic therapy device is configured to acoustically couple the array of piezoelectric ultrasound transducer elements to the skin surface,

wherein the patient interface is configured for non-invasively conforming to the patient at the skin surface; and

circulating a fluid in a cooling system to absorb heat through the skin surface over the treatment region, wherein the cooling system comprises a fluid volume between the patient interface and the array of piezoelectric transducer elements.

13. The method of claim 12 , wherein the frequency is in a range of 650 kHz to 2 Mhz.

14. The method of claim 12 ,

wherein the signal is a packet comprising a predetermined number of cycles per packet to produce a packet of acoustic waves, the signal being selected from at least one of the group consisting of: a frequency modulated drive signal and a phase modulated signal,

wherein the packet is made of a repeating signal comprising at least one selected from the group consisting of: a sine wave, a rectangular pulse, and a triangular pulse.

15. The method of claim 12 , further comprising administering a pro drug to the patient, wherein the pro drug comprises aminolevulinic acid (ALA), wherein the ALA results in increased production of the porphyrin compound.

16. The method of claim 12 , wherein the sonodynamic therapy is configured to minimize a spatial variation of the acoustic intensity in the tumor cells of the patient, wherein the signal is selected from the group consisting of: a phase modulated drive signal to produce a phase modulated acoustic wave and a pulse signal to produce a pulsed acoustic wave.

17. The method of claim 12 , wherein the sonodynamic therapy is configured to minimize a spatial variation of the acoustic intensity in the tumor cells of the patient, wherein the signal is selected from the group consisting of: a duty cycle modulated drive signal to produce a duty cycle modulated acoustic wave and a frequency modulated drive signal to produce a frequency modulated acoustic wave.

18. The method of claim 12 , wherein the patient interface comprises the flexible shell.