Sonodynamic therapy: Another “light” in tumor treatment by exogenous stimulus

Abstract Reactive oxygen species (ROS) have been proven to be tightly related to multiple cell functions, such as proliferation, differentiation and apoptosis. Excessive accumulation of ROS above a certain threshold in cells will damage DNA and induce cell cycle arrest, senescence, apoptosis or necrosis. ROS-mediated therapeutic strategies have been increasingly developed for treating malignant tumor in recent years due to their high effectiveness, feasibility and biosafety, such as photodynamic therapy (PDT), sonodynamic therapy (SDT), etc. SDT is developed from PDT but different from PDT, possessing unique superiorities in combating oncology due to its deep tissue penetration and high specificity. In this perspective article, we mainly highlight the latest achievements of Professor Chen's group in improving the efficacy of sonodynamic tumor eradication. Moreover, the current challenges and development potential in this evolving field have also been discussed.