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Professor Daniel Jeanmonod faced a packed meeting room at the Philadelphia convention Center on May 3 when he presented his much-anticipated results treating 12 patients in Zürich using transcranial MR-guided focused ultrasound (TcFUS). Many neurosurgeons in the audience at the Stereotactic and Functional Neurosurgery Session of the 2010 annual meeting of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons were there mainly for his presentation. He reported on 18 ablative lesions performed in 12 patients using transcranial central lateral thalamotomy with the Exablate 4000 (Insightec Ltd, Haifa). All patients suffered from chronic therapy-resistant neuropathic pain, including some who had failed prior radiofrequency lesioning.   Real-time MR image monitoring (thermometry) was performed in awake patients, allowing for on-line control of targeting parameters, precision and safety. His work confirmed the high level of precision in lesion placement (< 1.0 mm) that had been previously reported (Martin E. et al., Annals of Neurology 66(6):858-861, 2009).  Skull heating was minimal. Peri-lesional edema appeared on MRI within 48 hours, but was resolved at the time of the 1-month MRI.

The Foundation congratulates Toronto-based Profound Medical, Inc., winner of the prestigious, 2010 Ontario Premier’s Catalyst Award for “Start-up Company with the Best Innovation.” The Ontario government will also invest C$ 200,000 in further developing the company’s investigational MR-guided focused ultrasound device for treating prostate cancer. The company is in the midst of securing financing to accelerate clinical trials in North America, Canada and the European Union.

Recently I attended the American Association of Cancer Research Conference (AACR) in Washington, DC and the topic of personalized medicine permeated the conference. It began with the results of the BATTLE Trial (Biomarker-integrated Approaches of Targeted Therapy for Lung cancer Elimination) during the Opening Plenary Session. The BATTLE Trial is a unique Lung Cancer Trial that was the first of its kind in two ways. First, the trial design was adaptive in that the treatment plan for patients was modified during the trial. Secondly, the trial required that a fresh core needle biopsy from each patient be obtained at diagnosis. The acquisition of a tumor sample from a patient AND the use of tumor sample’s biomarker presentation to drive the patients’ treatment based on the biomarkers presented on their particular tumor was, well…personalized medicine. And it worked. Both the adaptive approach and the targeting of drugs to specific biomarkers resulted in improved outcomes for patients in a disease that is notably difficult to treat. I couldn’t help but extrapolate this study to the potential of Focused Ultrasound-mediated Targeted Drug Delivery. FUS-TDD treatments will transport highly concentrated drug payloads directly to a tumor site while providing near-immediate delivery confirmation.The BATTLE study plus the conference sessions on Nanotechnology in Cancer and on Image Guided Drug Delivery fueled my own excitement about the promise that FUS-TDD holds for the future of cancer therapy and personalized medicine.

Executive Perspective: Falko Busse, PhD, Philips Healthcare  Asian markets are leading the adoption of focused ultrasound, reports Falko Busse, PhD, vice president and general manager of MR-HIFU for Philips Healthcare.