Cavitation activity and temperature rise have been investigated in a tissue-mimicking material and excised bovine liver treated with ethanol and insonated with a 0.825 MHz focused acoustic transducer. The acoustic power was varied from 1.3 to 26.8 W to find the threshold leading to the onset of inertial cavitation. Cavitation events were quantified by three independent techniques: B-mode ultrasound imaging, needle hydrophone measurements and passive cavitation detection. Temperature in or near the focal zone was measured by thermocouples embedded in the samples. The results of this study indicate that the treatment of tissue phantoms and bovine liver samples with ethanol reduces their threshold power for inertial cavitation. This in turn leads to a sudden rise in temperature in ethanol-treated samples at a lower acoustic power than that in untreated ones. The analysis of passive cavitation detection data shows that once the threshold acoustic power is reached, inertial cavitation becomes a major contributor to acoustic scattering in ethanol-treated phantoms and bovine liver samples as compared to control. This study opens up the possibility of improved tumor ablation therapy via a combination of percutaneous ethanol injection and high-intensity focused ultrasound.