Whole Brain Radiation

Perfusion Technology looks to bring brain tumor ultrasound to market

&Ldquo;We aim to provide hope for tens of thousands of people who suffer from malignant brain tumors. Today, this diagnosis means a short life expectancy with limited therapeutic options, primarily consisting of surgery and whole brain radiation therapy. Our approach is to treat the penumbra of the brain tumor with non-invasive ultrasound, in order to deliver IV-administered therapeutics to the healthy tissue surrounding the tumor.” Perfusion Technology has developed an ultrasound system that uses a headset with ultrasound transducers directed at the penumbra, the region surrounding the tumor, in order to penetrate the blood brain barrier (BBB) and allow the delivery of drugs to the healthy brain tissue. The system is designed to address the challenges of treating malignant brain tumors, which are difficult to reach because of the cancerous cells that have migrated away from the bulk tumor and can neither be removed surgically nor accessed by most therapeutics. The low intensity, unfocused ultrasound penetration is noninvasive and reversible, allowing for the procedure to be conducted in an outpatient setting for regular drug infusion treatments. The sales price for the disposable elements of the device is $200 per use with a rate of two disposables per treatment and a system sales price of $50,000. Al Kyle is president and CEO of Perfusion Technology. He has founded three medical device startups, including StatVideo LLC that is currently marketing the EchoBox, a specialized video conferencing system for transmitting real-time echocardiography images over the web. He was also general manager of Hewlett Packard Co.’s ultrasound business and a captain in the U.S. Marines. Ulrich Herken, founder and chief scientific officer, was director of research and development and chief scientist for two medical device startups. He also serves as director of clinical affairs at Zoll Medical Inc. The initial market is 10,000 patients with primary brain tumors. The expanded market includes metastatic tumors with approximately 155,000 to 200,000 affected patients. The total addressable market is worth $1.65 billion in the United States, according to Kyle. The company is targeting this market because it has limited therapeutic options and a wide array of approved drugs for use via a drug-device delivery approach, said Kyle. According to Kyle, the company faces competition primarily from Medtronic Inc. and Cambridge-based Alnylam Pharmaceuticals Inc., who are collaborating on a clinical trial for convection-enhanced delivery of therapeutics. Insightec Ltd., an ultrasound technology company in Israel, is also developing a magnetic resonance guided focused ultrasound system for treatment of the brain.

Dancing With Cancer: Living With Mets, A New Normal: Brain mets

3) I will continue on the Abraxane for one more week, and next week's labs will also test a sample of CA 27.29, my tumor marker. If the tumor marker shows a decline, then we might continue the Abraxane/Avastin combo. If it continues to go up, then Dr G will consider changing to Xeloda , an oral chemotherapy which he believes is more proven to cross the blood/brain barrier .

Difficult to hear, and there's no easy response. But, IF it is brain metastases (and you probably want to find someone who can say so with more confidence before you take ANY action), the brain is amazingly resiliant. Just keep up the good fight and we will all keep praying so you can outrun this thing until modern science catches up and overtakes it.

Brain metastasis, a multidisciplinary approach

Whole-Brain Radiation Whole-brain radiation is usually delivered with the patient lying supine, with the head immobilized to minimize movement during ...

Intracranial metastases, current management strategies

CHAPTER 8 Whole-brain radiation therapy Ritsuko Komaki, Eric Chang Introduction As diagnostic imaging (eg, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)) has advanced, ...

Principles and Practice of Neuro-Oncology, A Multidisciplinary Approach

Whole-Brain Radiation Therapy With or Without Radiosensitizers A number of studies have examined the use of radiosensitizers in addition to ...

Handbook of radiation oncology, basic principles and clinical protocols

25 Surgery without whole brain radiotherapy is advised only for patients at particular risk for radiation-induced dementia, or for patients with histologies ...

Radiation oncology for cure and palliation

Whole-brain irradiation after the resection of a single or several brain metastases might destroy small collections of cancer cells likely to exist even if ...