Focused ultrasound treatments can give patients new leases on life while also avoiding consequences of invasive treatments.
Just ask Pejman Ghanouni, MD, PhD, who for the past 15 years has been research and performing MR-guided focused ultrasound (MRgFUS) procedures. Ghanouni is a diagnostic radiologist with Stanford Health Care Radiology as well as a professor and chief of the Division of Body MRI at the Stanford University School of Medicine.
He also serves as director of the Stanford Health Care Minimally Invasive MR Interventional Center and the Focused Ultrasound Center of Excellence.
In this episode, Ghanouni talks about how focused ultrasound treats pathologies like essential tremor, Parkinson’s disease, prostate cancer, bone tumors, and desmoid tumors, all without harming surrounding healthy tissue.
Pejman Ghanouni, MD, PhD, tells a couple patient success stories from MRgFUS treatments he performed.
Ghanouni also tells some success stories from patients he has treated and why focused ultrasound is becoming a more attractive treatment option.
Finally, Ghanouni discusses how focused ultrasound can grow in use as well as research he is leading in this area.
View the full episode below.
![Examples of ultrasound findings and techniques. (A) Images in a 39-year-old male patient with a mass in the left thigh. The mass is heterogeneous on the B-mode US image (compared with the patient in D) and showed increased microvascularity (superb microvascular imaging [SMI]) and shear-wave elastography (SWE) values. Undifferentiated pleomorphic sarcoma was diagnosed at biopsy (with pleomorphic rhabdomyosarcoma in surgical specimen). (B) Images in an 18-year-old male patient with a mass in the left leg. The mass is hypoechoic on the B-mode image, with no other findings suggestive of malignancy. The lesion is in contact with the cortex of the tibia, which is slightly irregular. CT revealed a doubtful anteromedial tibial erosion. The microvascular study demonstrated high vascularization, suggestive of malignancy. Periosteal Ewing sarcoma was diagnosed with both histologic and immunohistochemical confirmation. (C) Images in a 69-year-old female patient with a lump growing on the outside of the left leg. Multiple SWE examinations were performed (please note the high values obtained in the measurements, whereas the color map highlights the stiffness relative to adjacent tissues). SMI showed areas of increased vascularization to target for sampling. Undifferentiated spindle cell sarcoma was diagnosed at biopsy, with residual leiomyosarcoma in the surgical specimen after neoadjuvant therapy. (D) Images in a 56-year-old female patient with a mass in the right thigh. The mass is heterogeneous at both B-mode ultrasound (similar to patient A) and MRI (coronal T2-weighted spectral attenuated inversion recovery [SPAIR]; T1-weighted pre-contrast and postcontrast imaging), which even shows uptake after the administration of paramagnetic contrast material, which is traditionally suggestive of malignancy. Low values at SMI and elastography are suggestive of benignity. Spindle cell lipoma was diagnosed at biopsy, with atypical spindle cell lipomatous tumor in the surgical specimen.](https://img.auntminnie.com/mindful/smg/workspaces/default/uploads/2026/08/images-radiol250278fig2.APCFLSvX6p.jpg?auto=format%2Ccompress&dpr=2&fit=crop&h=167&q=70&w=250)
