Effect of near field ultrasound on carboplatin treatment of ovarian carcinoma cells.

It has long been shown that therapeutic ultrasound has the potential to affect cells surfaces and membranes. In this study, the effects of ultrasound in near field mode, the anti-cancer drug carboplatin and their combined application were studied on human carcinoma cells A2780. Four modes of treatment were used: exposure to ultrasonic field, application of carboplatin, exposure to ultrasound followed by carboplatin and carboplatin treatment followed by exposure to near field ultrasound. The value of viability was measured by standard MTT test. The value of ultrasound intensity was set 1 W x cm(-2) and 1 MHz frequency was used. The real value of acoustic pressure during in vitro experiments was assessed by hydrophone. The results showed that a combined effect of ultrasound and carboplatin influenced the viability of human carcinoma cells A2780 more than the application of ultrasound or carboplatin alone. It could be assumed that exposure of cells to ultrasonic field had an immediate effect on the structure of cell surface and consequently on the entry of carboplatin into the cell. The results of our experiments demonstrated possibility of using therapeutic ultrasound in potentiating the cytostatic treatment of human carcinoma cells.