Potential Applications of Tandem Shock Waves in Cancer Treatment

Abstract

A generator of two successive shock waves focused to a common focal point-tandem shocks is developed. To investigate the effect of shock waves on living cells, suspension of melanoma B16 cells has been exposed to 600 and 1200 of tandem shocks with a fix time interval between them of 10 mus. Microscopic investigation revealed that even small number of shocks (90, 190) results in perforation of the cell membranes, which could lead to the facilitated chemotherapeutic drug penetration into targeted tumor cells.