Sonodynamic therapy

Sonodynamic therapy is either a) a potential, but yet clinically unproven form of chemotherapy, or b) more likely, if it's being already sold to you, a quack cancer treatment. Sonodynamic therapy claims to use ultrasound and light to enhance the cytotoxic effects of drugs described as "sonosensitizers." In vitro and animal studies continue as of 2018, but clinical trials are still mostly lacking. Current results are not considered compelling and it is rejected by both mainstream science and some woo-promoters alike. Like with dichloroacetate, there is some genuine scientific interest, but this doesn't mean that the therapy is safe or effective, something which can be only shown with actual clinical trials.

The promotion of sonodynamic therapy motivated an unprecedented initiative by health authorities in the UK to warn patients about bogus cancer treatments.

A land of confusion
It's never a good sign when practitioners keep alternating between a wide set of science-sounding titles for the therapy itself (ranging from the utterly vague to the overly technical). Known aliases include:


 * Sonodynamic therapy
 * Activated therapy
 * Sono Photo Dynamic Therapy (SPDT)
 * Next Generation Photodynamic Therapy (NGPDT)
 * Ultrasound Activated PDT (UAPDT)

It should not be confused with the entirely legitimate photodynamic therapy (PDT). No way were the inventors trying to capitalise on that when they named it, no sir.

Quackery
As with all truly ground-breaking discoveries suppressed by the cancer industry, the studies supporting this are in low impact factor journals, including journals specialising in alternative therapies.

Promoters of the sonodynamics attempted to push their nonsense on Wikipedia.