Spectrally Targeted, Nonthermal Tumor Ablation by Resonant Modal Collapse: Proof-of-Concept for a Translational Biomedical Device
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A paradigm shift in oncological intervention is proposed, wherein tumor ablation is reframed as a problem of vibrational topology, rather than conventional energy dose or thermal transfer. A nonthermal, contactless strategy is described, employing phase- locked external excitation tuned to the eigenfrequencies of malignant tissues. This approach enables selective accumulation of localized strain along specific vibrational modes, leading to irreversible mechanical collapse restricted to pathological structures, while thermal diffusion, ionizing radiation, and cytotoxic agents are entirely bypassed. In contrast to existing ablation modalities—thermal, cavitation-based, or chem- ical—intrinsic spectral, elastic, and geometric asymmetries of tumors are harnessed to enable precision targeting via spectral detuning, with efficient sparing of healthy stroma. Robust spectral confinement of vibrational energy in tumor analogs is demon- strated by finite-element simulations and multilayer phantom experiments, achieving mechanical quality factors above 30 and collapse events occurring safely below conven- tional thermal limits. Pathologies such as pancreatic and triple-negative breast cancers, typically resis- tant to standard interventions, are shown to exhibit unique modal fingerprints under this framework. This allows highly specific ablation even in infiltrative or surgically inaccessible regions. These findings are believed to establish both mechanistic and translational foundations for a new class of spectral-oncological therapies, integrating vibrational resonance physics with biomedical engineering and image-guided precision for future clinical translation.