ABOVE: Pairs of brain scans show the uptake of radiolabeled tratuzumab into tumors (arrows) before (left) and after (right) focused ultrasound.
SUNNYBROOK HEALTH SCIENCES CENTRE
A first-in-human trial reported in Science Translational Medicine today (October 13) demonstrates delivery of an immunotherapy drug to metastatic brain tumors with the help of focused ultrasound. The targeted low-frequency sound waves temporarily opened the normally impenetrable blood-brain barrier at the sites of tumors in stage 4 breast cancer patients, enabling drug entry. Follow up analyses indicated the procedure also led to tumor shrinkage.
“It’s a really important step forward in this process of understanding how valuable focused ultrasound will be as a method to deliver drugs to the brain,” says neuroscientist Richard Daneman of the University of California, San Diego, who studies the blood-brain barrier but was not part of the research team.
“The fact that they did show increased drug delivery where they wanted ...
