Table 1.

Differences between different mechanisms of ultrasound.

Mechanism	Primary Driver	Outcome	Key Immunological Effect	Example Application
Thermal effect	Heat	Tumour tissue necrosis or tumour cell apoptosis	ICD, antigen release	Ultrasonic thermal ablation
Mechanical (non-thermal) effects	Mechanically destroy tissue without causing coagulative thermal damage	Mechanically disrupt cells into a homogenate of subcellular debris	Generate more natural conformations compared to those exposed to heat, which are efficient antigens for DCs activation and subsequent cytotoxic T lymphocyte	Histotripsy, Boiling histotripsy
	Cavitation effect	Strong mechanical stress, shockwaves and microjets	ICD, release of inflammatory factors	Sonodynamic therapy