Cancer treatment involving microbubbles to go on trial in S'pore

Performed without incisions or radiation, it also leaves surrounding tissues undamaged

- Joyce Teo

A new cancer treatment that uses bubbles generated by precise ultrasound waves to destroy tumour cells will be trialled here from the second half of 2025.

It is performed without any incisions, radiation or surgery, and without heat or damage to surrounding tissues.

Called histotripsy, the treatment was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for liver tumours in October 2023. In Asia, it has been performed on about 50 cancer patients in Hong Kong.

Singapore will have two histotripsy machines during the trial, which will initially involve liver cancer patients.

The machines are donated by the Li Ka Shing Foundation – which had earlier donated three histotripsy systems to Hong Kong in September 2024 – and Temasek Trust. One will be placed at the National Cancer Centre Singapore (NCCS), and the other at the National University Cancer Institute, Singapore (NCIS).

Both organisations have committed a total of $12 million to bring histotripsy clinical trials to Singapore, said a joint press statement.

The funding will kick-start trials to extend the treatment to kidney and pancreatic cancers, in addition to liver cancer, said Ms Ho Ching, chairman of Temasek Trust, on April 3 at an event held at NCCS.

In a video address played at the event, billionaire Li Ka Shing said he was deeply impressed by the treatment's ground-breaking potential when he first learnt about histotripsy.

Since the first machine for histotripsy arrived in Hong Kong, about 50 cancer patients with tumours in different sections of the liver have been successfully treated.