2018/08/28 by Ying Meng, Suganth Suppiah, Shanan Surendrakumar +2 · 1 citation
Engineering · Medicine · #Advanced MRI Techniques and Applications #MRI in cancer diagnosis #Ultrasound and Hyperthermia Applications
paper · pdf · doi:10.3389/fonc.2018.00338
openalex publication_date 2018/08/28 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01
Low-intensity MR-guided focused ultrasound in combination with intravenously injected microbubbles is a promising platform for drug delivery to the central nervous system past the blood-brain barrier. The blood-brain barrier is a key bottleneck for cancer therapeutics via limited inter- and intracellular transport. Further, drugs that cross the blood-brain barrier when delivered in a spatially nonspecific way, result in adverse effects on normal brain tissue, or at high concentrations, result in increasing risks to peripheral organs. As such, various anti-cancer drugs that have been developed or to be developed in the future would benefit from a noninvasive, temporary, and repeatable method of targeted opening of the blood-brain barrier to treat metastatic brain diseases. MR-guided focused ultrasound is a potential solution to these design requirements. The safety, feasibility and preliminary efficacy of MRgFUS aided delivery have been demonstrated in various animal models. In this review, we discuss this preclinical evidence, mechanisms of focused ultrasound mediated blood-brain barrier opening, and translational efforts to neuro-oncology patients.