Brain Cancer treatment taps into sound waves

Brain cancer patients might benefit from an implantable ultrasound device that appears to enhance chemotherapy treatment. Researchers from the Pitie-Salpetriere Hospital in Paris and other French institutions tested the experimental device on 15 patients with recurrent glioblastoma, a particularly deadly brain cancer. When the so-called SonoCloud was activated, sound waves opened the blood-brain barrier, letting in more chemotherapy. While this blood-brain barrier protects the brain from toxins, "it means a challenge for treating brain diseases and disorders, as 99 percent of potential therapeutic drugs are blocked by it." "This is significant," said Dr. Ekokobe Fonkem, a neuro-oncologist at Baylor Scott and White's Vasicek Cancer Treatment Center, in Temple, Texas. "One of the reasons glioblastoma, which is one of the most aggressive forms of brain cancer, is very difficult to treat is because the blood-brain barrier prevents medications from getting across."