Recent advances in acoustic cavitation-inducible materials for cancer sonotheranostics

Abstract

Acoustic cavitation—the nucleation, oscillation, and collapse of micro- or nano-bubbles under ultrasound stimulation—has emerged as a powerful approach for non-invasive cancer diagnosis and therapy. Cavitation-inducible materials (CIMs) provide controllable mechanical forces that enhance drug delivery, modulate immune responses, and enable real-time imaging guidance. Ultrasound-triggered cavitation can disrupt tumor tissues via CIMs, promote the release of tumor-associated antigens and damage-associated molecular patterns, and remodel immunosuppressive tumor microenvironments. Concurrent advances in CIMs for ultrasound molecular imaging, particularly enabled by genetically encoded acoustic reporter genes, now enable real-time tracking of cellular events and treatment responses with high spatial and temporal resolution. This review summarizes recent progress in the design and biomedical application of CIMs for cancer sonotheranostics. We highlight (1) materials that exploit stable or inertial cavitation for therapeutic activation, (2) cavitation-induced immune modulation and synergistic immunotherapy, and (3) ultrasound-based molecular imaging platforms. Finally, we discuss translational challenges and future directions that will shape next-generation ultrasound-driven precision oncology.