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Join us Wednesday, October 30, for a free virtual webinar on the potential impact of cancer immunotherapies for the treatment of breast cancer.

Key Points The 16th biennial ISRS Congress was held May 12–15, 2024 in New York City.  The Foundation sponsored a mini symposium on the latest focused ultrasound advances in ablation, radiosensitization, and neuromodulation.  Held every two years, the 16th biennial ISRS Congress took place May 12–15, 2024, in New York City. With the theme “Personalized Radiosurgery from Around the World,” stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) is now becoming tailored to the care of each patient. With more than 600 attendees from 14 countries, the congress showcased recent advances in SRS, stereotactic body radiotherapy, and related focal therapy techniques for benign, malignant, and functional conditions.  “Many clinicians performing stereotactic radiosurgery personally deliver or work at centers that perform focused ultrasound,” said ISRS Vice President Jason Sheehan, MD, PhD, professor of neurosurgery, radiation oncology, biomedical engineering, and neuroscience at the University of Virginia. “When applied to treat complex intracranial problems, SRS and focused ultrasound share similar principles of being minimally invasive, image guided, stereotactic procedures. As such, there was considerable interest in the focused ultrasound seminar at the ISRS Congress.”  Luncheon Seminar  The Foundation hosted a luncheon seminar titled “Latest Updates on Focused Ultrasound in Brain Disease Treatment: New Insights into Ablation, Radiosensitization, and Neuromodulation.” It was presented by Chrit Moonen, PhD, a managing director at the Foundation and co-director of the Research and Education Team.  “Regarding ablation, stereotactic radiosurgery in the brain is faced with targeting problems similar to those in MR-guided focused ultrasound for the treatment of essential tremor,” said Dr. Moonen. “There is an increasing use of advanced MRI techniques to provide improved targeting.” He added, “The information on the novel possibilities of local drug delivery and radiosensitization via blood-brain barrier opening with microbubbles and focused ultrasound was much appreciated and led to a lively discussion on future applications in neurodegenerative diseases.”  Focused Ultrasound Presentations  Two focused ultrasound abstracts were presented at the conference:  In the Alternative Targeting Strategies – LITT/HIFU/Flash RT session, Michael Schwartz, MD, MSc, FRCSC, a neurosurgeon at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre and professor of surgery at the University of Toronto in Canada, presented “Finding the ventral intermediate (VIM) nucleus for MR guided focused ultrasound thalamotomy.”  In the Novel SRS/SBRT Targets session, Michael Schulder, MD, FAANS, a neurosurgeon in the Department of Neurosurgery at the Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell and director of the Brain Tumor Center at Northwell Health’s Institute for Neurology and Neurosurgery in New York, USA, presented “SRS for Functional Disorders in the Era of FUS and DBS.”  Search the meeting program for your own research interests or key words.  Upcoming Meetings  ISRS is hosting its first CNS Summit on June 4–5, 2025, in Geneva, Switzerland. Then, in 2026, the 17th biennial ISRS Congress will be held in Sydney, Australia, from May 31 – June 3rd.  ISRS was founded as an international nonprofit organization in 1991. It is dedicated to advancing the field of stereotactic radiosurgery through research, education, and multidisciplinary collaboration. It is the largest organization of its kind with over 800 members from more than 60 countries.  See the 2024 Meeting Website and Photo Gallery 

Key Points The IEEE Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics, and Frequency Control Society held its LAUS May 8–10, 2024, in Montevideo, Uruguay, and virtually.  Ten of the abstracts presented at the meeting may be of interest to the focused ultrasound community.  The IEEE Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics, and Frequency Control LAUS was a hybrid meeting that was held May 8–10, 2024, in Montevideo, Uruguay, and virtually.  The Foundation was the gold sponsor of the event, and focused ultrasound manufacturer Versonics was the platinum sponsor. David Moore, senior project engineer in the Brain Technical Program attended the meeting virtually.  “The presentation from the Lyon group on calcium channel activation was very interesting,” said Mr. Moore. “The Foundation is proud to have funded that project. It was also good to see an entire session on ultrasound therapy.”  Focused Ultrasound Abstracts  The following 10 abstracts may be of interest to the focused ultrasound community:  9004: Simulating Focused Ultrasound with the Boundary Element Method by Elwin van ‘T Wout, Reza Haqshenas, and Pierre Gélat from Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile (Chile) and University College London (United Kingdom)  9011: Influence of Langevin-Type Transducer Tip Design on Ultrasound-Mediated Transdermal Drug Delivery by Gutemberg Silva Cardoso, José Henrique Lopes, Yugo Araújo Martins, Antonio Adilton Carneiro, Renata Fonseca Lopez, and Theo Zeferino Pavan from the Federal University of Alagoas (Brazil) and the University of São Paulo (Brazil)  9015: Non-Invasive Real-Time Tissue Temperature Control Using Change in Backscattered Energy of RF Echo Signal During Ultrasound Hyperthermia by Michael Nguyen, Gholam Peyman, Michael Kolios, and Jahangir Tavakkoli from Cancer Rx, Inc. (USA) and Toronto Metropolitan University (Canada)  9021: Spatiotemporal Analysis of single-Pulse Focused Ultrasound (FUS)-Evoked Ca2+ Signaling in a Human Neural Progenitor Cell Line by Ivan Suarez-Castellanos, Tom Aubier, Magali Perier, Sandrine Parrot, Alexandre Carpentier, and William Apoutou N’Djin from AP-HP (France), Centre de Recherche en Neurosciences de Lyon (France), and LabTAU-INSERM (France)*  9024: Measurement of Ultrasound Field and a Study of Coupling Medium for Sonodynamic Therapy by Iago Carvalho, Vanderlei Bagnato, and Sebastião Pratavieira from the University of São Paulo (Brazil)  9036: Dual-Mode Ultrasound-Guided, High-Intensity Focused Ultrasound (USgHIFU) Probe Built Using CMUT Technology for Targeted Endocavitary Focal Therapies by Ivan Suarez-Castellanos, Antoine Bienassis, Guillaume Vanstaevel, Bruno Giammarinaro, Thomas Payen, Jean-Yves Chapelon, Nicolas Senegond, Nicolas Guillen, and William Apoutou N’Djin from EDAP-TMS (France), LabTAU-INSERM (France), and VERMON (France)  9049: Artificial Visual Phantoms for Ultrasound Thermal Therapy by Natalia Garay Badenian, Nicolas Benech, Guillermo Cortela, and Franco Simini from Laboratorio de Acústica Ultrasonora (Uruguay) and Nucleo de Ingeniería Biomédica (Uruguay)  9050: Fluid Cavitation Analysis in Pressurized Vessels Using High-Power Ultrasonic Transducers by Naser Tanabi, André César Martins Cavalheiro, Timóteo Francisco Oliveira, Hossein Nasiri, Bruno Barbosa Castro, Flavio Buiochi, and Marcos Sales Guerra Tsuzuki from Escola Politécnica da Universidade de São Paulo (Brazil) and Petrobras (Brazil)  9074: Experimental Study on the Probability of Inducing and Detecting Cavitation Events in a Soft Solid by Gonzalo Garay, Yamil Abraham, Guillermo Cortela, Nicolás Benech, and Carlos Negreira from the Facultad de Ciencias at Udelar (Uruguay)  9093: Sonophotodynamic Inactivation of Pseudomonas aeruginosa biofilm Mediated by Curcumin by Iago Carvalho, Vanderlei Bagnato, and Sebastião Pratavieira from the University of São Paulo (Brazil)  Search the Meeting Program for your own sessions of interest or key words.  The IEEE Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics, and Frequency Control Society sponsors three international symposia: The International Ultrasonics Symposium (IUS), the International Symposium on the Application of Ferroelectrics (ISAF), and the International Frequency Control Symposium (IFCS). The society partners with other societies to support and sponsor regional meetings, such as LAUS. Its upcoming events calendar can be found here.  See the Meeting Website  *=Foundation-funded research project. 

Dr. Neal Kassell spoke with the South China Morning Post about the potential of focused ultrasound in cancer treatment