Sensitization of hypoxic tumors to radiation therapy using ultrasound sensitive oxygen microbubbles

Tumor hypoxia has been shown to decrease the sensitivity of solid tumors to radiation. Systemic efforts to increase tumor oxygenation levels immediately prior to therapy, however, have largely proven unsuccessful. The objective of this work was to determine the utility of oxygen-filled, ultrasound sensitive microbubbles for locally delivering oxygen and sensitizing tissue to radiation in a breast cancer model.