Enhancement of antitumor vaccine in ablated hepatocellular carcinoma by high-intensity focused ultrasound: A preliminary report

AIM: To investigate whether tumor debris created by high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) could trigger antitumor immunity in a mouse hepatocellular carci-noma model. METHODS: Twenty C57BL/6J mice bearing H22 hepa-tocellular carcinoma were used to generate antitumor vaccines. Ten mice underwent HIFU ablation, and the remaining 10 mice received a sham-HIFU procedure with no ultrasound irradiation. Sixty normal mice were randomly divided into HIFU vaccine, tumor vaccine and control groups. These mice were immunized with HIFU-generated vaccine, tumor-generated vaccine, and saline, respectively. In addition, 20 mice bearing H22 tumors were successfully treated with HIFU ablation