Ultrasound can help doctors get cancer-killing drugs to brain tumors The sound waves create microbubbles that allow drugs to get through the blood-brain barrier This boosted the body’s immune response against brain cancer in four patients THURSDAY, June 6, 2024 (HealthDay News) -- One of the biggest obstacles to treating brain cancer is getting tumor-killing drugs past the blood-brain barrier that normally protects the brain from foreign invaders. Now, new research shows that ultrasound waves emitted from a device implanted in a cancer patient’s skull could be the key to getting chemotherapy and immunotherapy drugs into the brain. This ultrasound technology allowed doctors at Northwestern Medicine in Chicago to get a small dose of these drugs past the blood-brain barrier, according to a report published June 6 in the journal .
What’s more, the treatment boosted the immune system’s recognition of brain cancer cells, the researchers added. “This is the first report in humans where an ultrasound device has been used to deliver drugs and antibodies to glioblastoma to change the immune system, so it can recognize and attack the brain cancer,” said researcher , an associate professor of neurological surgery at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. “This could be a major advance for the treatment of glioblastoma, which has been a frustratingly difficult cancer to treat, in part due to poor penetration of circulating drugs and antibodies into the brain,�.
