A world-first clinical trial for a treatment that burns away cancer pain and has the potential to revolutionise cancer treatment by attacking cells with sound waves is underway in Sutton.

Researchers at the Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) and the Royal Marsden Hospital, alongside the Focused Ultrasound Foundation and Royal Philips, are testing whether focussing MRI-guided ultrasound onto the surface of bone where cancer has spread can reduce pain.

The ICR and hospital house the only MRI-guided ultrasound facility in the UK.

The treatment, which produces heat to destroy nerve endings in the bone, has already had success in nine patients who have participated.

Of the nine, six patients have been breast cancer patients, two renal patients and one a lung cancer patient.

Researchers are hoping that in the long term the ultrasound could deliver treatment directly to the cancer cells, which would have much less impact on the body than current chemotherapy and radiotherapy treatments.

Professor Gail ter Haar said: "The very first patient we treated was a lady aged 52 who had a secondary tumour at the top of her arm, and it was stopping her doing simple things like putting her seatbelt on, walking her dog or opening cupboards.

"After we treated her she was able to do those things and that is just amazing.

"The pain relief is very rapid so within a week she was down to a very low pain score, she still had pain and she still had a tumour but we were able to palliate her pain.

"All the patients we have treated have reported significant pain relief."

Colleague Professor Nandita DeSouza said: "It has huge implications for patients who had failed with other treatments because it is giving them hope there is something else.

"Once hope has been taken away people go home to think, ‘Oh, I’m going to die,’ and that is awful.

"The next step would be treating patients who have no other options and then after that treating patients in a setting where we add it to the existing therapies.

"For example, looking at this treatment together with radiotherapy, do we get a better outcome?

"The patient still has to have surgery but if we prove every time, when there is nothing left in the surgery tumour-wise, that the combination works you could then move up a notch and get rid of surgery.

"That is not going to happen overnight but in certain cases it could be the primary treatment.

"Chemo and radiotherapy straightforwardly have toxic side effects to other tissues.

"If you have chemotherapy the drugs are going everywhere while radiotherapy passes through the tissue and there are limits to how much you can use.

"With this you are focusing to a very narrow area and treating that area but you don’t get side effects."

The Focused Ultrasound Foundation and Royal Philips are also collaborating in the trial.

The trial is still recruiting for patients, but not everyone will be eligible for the trial and they have to be existing registered Royal Marsden patients.

If you have pain from cancer which has spread to the bone and you are interested in taking part in this trial, but you are not a Royal Marsden patient, you will need to speak to your GP or oncologist in the first instance and ask about being referred to the hospital.