Honglin Zhu, Caitlin Allwin, Monica G Bassous, Antonios N Pouliopoulos
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引用次数: 0
Abstract
Purpose: Brain tumors, particularly glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), present significant prognostic challenges despite multimodal therapies, including surgical resection, chemotherapy, and radiotherapy. One major obstacle is the limited drug delivery across the blood-brain barrier (BBB). Focused ultrasound (FUS) combined with systemically administered microbubbles has emerged as a non-invasive, targeted, and reversible approach to transiently open the BBB, thus enhancing drug delivery. This review examines clinical trials employing BBB opening techniques to optimise pharmacotherapy for brain tumors, evaluates current challenges, and proposes directions for further research.
Methods: A systematic literature search was conducted in PubMed and ClinicalTrials.gov up to November 2023, searching for "ultrasound" AND "brain tumor". The search yielded 1446 results. After screening by title and abstract, followed by full-text screening (n = 48), 35 studies were included in the analysis.
Results: Our analysis includes data from 11 published studies and 24 ongoing trials. The predominant focus of these studies is on glioma, including GMB and astrocytoma. One paper investigated brain metastasis from breast cancer. Evidence indicates that FUS facilitates BBB opening and enhances drug uptake following sonication. Exploration of FUS in the pediatric population is limited, with no published studies and only three ongoing trials dedicated to this demographic.
Conclusion: FUS is a promising strategy to safely disrupt the BBB, enabling precise and non-invasive lesion targeting, and enhance drug delivery. However, pharmacokinetic studies are required to quantitatively assess improvements in drug uptake. Most studies are phase I clinical trials, and long-term follow-up investigating patient outcomes is essential to evaluate the clinical benefit of this treatment approach. Further studies involving diverse populations and pathologies will be beneficial.
期刊介绍:
The Journal of Neuro-Oncology is a multi-disciplinary journal encompassing basic, applied, and clinical investigations in all research areas as they relate to cancer and the central nervous system. It provides a single forum for communication among neurologists, neurosurgeons, radiotherapists, medical oncologists, neuropathologists, neurodiagnosticians, and laboratory-based oncologists conducting relevant research. The Journal of Neuro-Oncology does not seek to isolate the field, but rather to focus the efforts of many disciplines in one publication through a format which pulls together these diverse interests. More than any other field of oncology, cancer of the central nervous system requires multi-disciplinary approaches. To alleviate having to scan dozens of journals of cell biology, pathology, laboratory and clinical endeavours, JNO is a periodical in which current, high-quality, relevant research in all aspects of neuro-oncology may be found.