Scientists at the University of Virginia have discovered that deadly brain tumors may be more susceptible to focused ultrasound than previously thought. Research conducted at the university’s Focused Ultrasound Cancer Immunotherapy Center found that cancer drugs delivered via sound waves could be more effective in treating gliomas than conventional brain cancer treatments.
The research opens the door to targeted brain cancer treatments that cause less harm to neighboring healthy cells. Study co-author and co-director of the Ultrasound Cancer Immunotherapy Center Richard J. Price says the research team’s findings could have a notable impact on oncology.
The findings gave his research team deeper insight into how focused ultrasound could make various brain tumor therapies more effective at treating cancer. Gliomas, for instance, are an extremely common type of adult brain cancer and make up 30% of all central nervous system and brain tumors. The knowledge gained in the study will guide the research team when it designs future clinical trials.
The team’s findings could also guide future efforts to specifically design novel gene and drug therapies that can be paired with focused ultrasound for more effective anti-cancer results. Such treatments would be a major boon for brain cancer patients who don’t respond to conventional brain cancer therapies and face extremely poor survival outcomes after diagnosis.
Glioblastomas, a type of glioma, are undoubtedly the deadliest type of brain cancer; they are unresponsive to most treatments and kill over 10,000 Americans each year, usually 5-10 years after initial diagnosis.
For most people, a glioblastoma diagnosis is akin to a death sentence largely because the condition is extremely hard to treat. They evade treatment by hiding behind the blood-brain barrier, a defense system that blocks harmful toxins and germs in the blood from entering the brain.
The blood-brain barrier is a critical part of the body’s natural defense on good days; however, it can make cancer treatment ineffective by blocking cancer drugs from reaching brain tumors. Most physicians aren’t enthusiastic about breaking past the barrier, as a breach could allow harmful intruders to enter the brain and wreak havoc.
Targeted sound waves would allow physicians to make tiny, precise openings in the blood-brain barrier that would only allow drugs to pass, without having to breach the skull. Price’s research team found that medium-sized drug molecules were the most effective once delivered into tumors using targeted sound waves.
The groundbreaking research is still in its infancy but could potentially lead to the development of gene and drug therapies delivered via focused ultrasound.
It would be interesting to see how focused ultrasound, combined with novel brain cancer therapies from companies like CNS Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: CNSP), could transform the clinical outcomes of patients diagnosed with glioblastoma or other brain cancers.
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