Ultrasound arrays for enhanced sonodynamic therapy for treating cancer

An ultrasound transducer system for applying sonodynamic therapy to an anatomical structure, the ultrasound transducer system comprising:

• an ultrasonic transducer array of piezoelectric transducers,
• wherein the ultrasonic transducer array is configured for calibration based on at least one of transcranial transmission data, imaging data, and acoustic pulses, wherein the acoustic pulses are generated by one or more of a chirp signal, an impulse signal, and a ping signal, wherein the ping signal comprises a burst of a plurality of acoustic pulses at a calibration frequency,
• an array holder,
• a patient interface,
• a cooling system, and
• a controller;
• wherein each piezoelectric transducer in the ultrasonic transducer array comprises an emitting surface configured to emit planar or defocused acoustic waves;
• wherein the array holder is configured to couple to the ultrasonic transducer array, wherein the array holder is configured to adjust to move the ultrasonic transducer array relative to the patient interface between a plurality of treatment positions;
• wherein the ultrasonic transducer array projects toward the patient interface through a cavity, wherein the cavity is configured to be filled with a fluid to a predetermined volume,
• wherein the patient interface is configured to acoustically couple the ultrasonic transducer array to a patient,
• wherein the patient interface is configured to detachably couple to the ultrasonic transducer array,
• wherein the patient interface comprises an acoustically-neutral elastic membrane,
• wherein the acoustically-neutral elastic membrane is configured to inflate in order to couple to an alignment feature configured to receive a predetermined anatomical landmark in order to establish a location registration between at least two of the ultrasonic transducer array, the acoustically-neutral elastic membrane, and the anatomical structure,
• wherein the cooling system comprises one or more cooling channels for receiving the fluid, wherein the one or more cooling channels are configured for circulation of the fluid to reduce heat at the acoustically-neutral elastic membrane;
• and
• wherein the controller is coupled to the ultrasonic transducer array,
• wherein the controller is configured to drive the ultrasonic transducer array with a signal configured to minimize a spatial variation of an acoustic wave intensity to cause the ultrasonic transducer array to activate a sonosensitizer in a treatment region in the anatomical structure with the planar or defocused acoustic waves at a frequency selected from a range of 20 kHz to 2 MHZ,
• wherein the signal is configured with one or more duty cycles to drive each piezoelectric transducer in the ultrasonic transducer array to generate a high temporal peak acoustic intensity with a low temporal average acoustic intensity when activating the sonosensitizer at the treatment region in the anatomical structure with the planar or defocused acoustic waves.