TORONTO – Scientists at Toronto’s Sunnybrook Hospital have taken the next bold step in chemotherapy by developing a non-invasive procedure to treat brain tumours.
The hospital said it made history last week by using a “focused ultrasound” to breach the blood-barrier in the brain to treat patients.
“The blood-brain barrier (BBB) has been a persistent obstacle to delivering valuable therapies to treat disease such as tumours,” says Dr. Todd Mainprize, principal investigator of the study and neurosurgeon in the Hurvitz Brain Sciences Program at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in a media release.
“We are encouraged that we were able to temporarily open this barrier in a patient to deliver chemotherapy directly to the brain tumour.”