Brain Tumors

Focused Ultrasound Therapy

Focused ultrasound is a noninvasive, therapeutic technology with the potential to improve the quality of life and decrease the cost of care for patients with brain tumors. This novel technology focuses beams of ultrasonic energy precisely and accurately on targets deep in the brain without damaging surrounding normal tissue.

How it Works
Where the beams converge, the ultrasound produces a variety of therapeutic effects, enabling treatment without incisions or radiation. These include temporary opening of the blood-brain barrier, designed to improve levels in the brain of therapeutic agents; thermal ablation; activation of sono-sensitive agents at the target; and combining with radiation therapy for a more pronounced effect. There is also a study using focused ultrasound prior to surgery to help mark the boundary of the tumor extension.

There are several listings for specific diseases within the broader brain tumor category, so you may want to go to these headings for a more detailed description.

DIPG/DMG
Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma (DIPG) is also referred to as Diffuse Midline Glioma (DMG) is also being investigated using several methods of action. Sonodynamic therapy, (where non toxic agents can respond to ultrasound stimulation to become locally toxic to the tumor), blood brain barrier (BBB) disruption (where the temporary disruption of the BBB can enable better penetration of chemotherapy agents) and the combination of focused ultrasound with radiation can help improve the outcomes.

Glioblastoma
There are several mechanisms of action that are being explored for glioblastoma. Thermal ablation (either complete or partial, which may help with the immune response), sonodynamic therapy, (where non toxic agents can respond to ultrasound stimulation to become locally toxic to the tumor), blood brain barrier (BBB) disruption (where the temporary disruption of the BBB can enable better penetration of chemotherapy agents) and the combination of focused ultrasound with radiation can help improve the outcomes.

Neuroblastoma
There are several mechanisms of action that are being pursued for neuroblastoma. Thermal ablation (either complete or partial, which may help with the immune response), and hyperthermia (temperature elevation) can help with the penetration of chemotherapy agents.

Neurofibromatosis
There are three types of Neurofibromatosis, type 1, type 2, and schwannomatosis, and the common symptom is that the benign tumors grow out with the peripheral nerves and cause numerous symptoms, often associated with pain, as a result. There has been some work proposed on these, and we are looking for clinical trials soon.

Metastatic disease
There is the use of blood brain barrier (BBB) disruption (where the temporary disruption of the BBB can enable better penetration of chemotherapy agents) to allow the treatment of cancers that have metastasized to the brain to be treated. See below for a study on lung cancers that have metastasized to the brain.

Advantages
Current treatments for brain tumors include surgery, radiation therapy, and chemotherapy, all of which have limitations and side effects.

Focused ultrasound, used alone or in combination with conventional therapies, has several potential advantages.

Focused ultrasound is non-invasive, so it does not carry added concerns like surgical wound healing or infection.
Focused ultrasound can reach the desired target without damaging surrounding tissue.
Focused ultrasound does not include the use of ionizing radiation
Enhanced chemotherapy dose for the target, with less impact to the rest of the patient.
It can be repeated, if necessary.

Clinical Trials

Focused Ultrasound Blood-Brain Barrier Disruption for the Treatment of High-Grade Glioma in Patients Undergoing Standard Chemotherapy
This clinical trial is using focused ultrasound to temporarily opening the blood brain barrier in patients undergoing maintenance chemotherapy in the Stupp Protocol.

Extracellular Impact of Ultrasound-induced Blood-brain Barrier Disruption
This study of BBBD is looking at the impact of the treatment on other therapeutic and pharmacodynamic substances that may also be in the area when this is accomplished.

An Ultrasound-Based Blood Brain Barrier Opening Clinical Trial Using Albumin Bound Paclitaxel to Treat Recurrent Glioblastoma
This invasive procedure that is similar to focused ultrasound uses an implanted device to treat patients with recurrent glioblastoma.

Blood-Brain Barrier Disruption (BBBD) for Liquid Biopsy in Subjects With Glioblastoma Brain Tumors
A clinical trial for patients with Glioblastoma for liquid biopsy has also begun recruiting patients.

The following studies concern focused ultrasound and sonodynamic therapy.

Sonodynamic therapy with progressive or recurrent glioblastoma
This study is using IV 5 ALA to treat patient with new or progressing glioblastoma at the Mayo Clinic.

A combination of sonodynamic therapy and chemotherapy is being studies in Henan, China.
This study is using Hiporfin® is a brand name for hematoporphyrin derivative, combined with chemotherapy in newly diagnosed glioblastoma in China.

Sonodynamic therapy in patients with recurrent glioblastoma.
This study used oral gleolan (5 ALA) which becomes altered in the presence of focused ultrasound and becomes locally toxic to the tumor.

A study of sonodynamic therapy for patient with high grade glioma
A new clinical trial in the US is using sound activated drugs to treat patients with recurrent high grade glioma, including glioblastoma.

A study of sonodynamic therapy in patients with newly diagnosed glioblastoma
This study will use low frequency focused ultrasound to activate drugs in patients with newly diagnosed glioblastoma.

Blood-Brain Barrier Disruption (BBBD) for Liquid Biopsy in Subjects With Glioblastoma Brain Tumors  
A clinical trial for patients with glioblastoma for liquid biopsy has also begun recruiting patients. 

The following studies concern tumors in pediatric patients.

Phase 1/2 Study of Sonodynamic therapy to treat Type 2 Patients with DIPG
A clinical trial is using sonodynamic therapy to treat pediatric patients who are five years and older with DIPG (diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma).

Blood Brain Barrier (BBB) Disruption Using Exablate Focused Ultrasound With Doxorubicin for Treatment of Pediatric DIPG
A clinical trial using doxorubicin to treat DIPG has begun in the US.

Blood Brain Barrier (BBB) Disruption Using Exablate Focused Ultrasound With Doxorubicin for Treatment of Pediatric DIPG
A clinical trial using doxorubicin to treat DIPG has begun in Canada.

A Feasibility Safety Study of Benign Centrally-Located Intracranial Tumors in Pediatric and Young Adult Subjects
Centrally located intracranial benign tumors that require intervention in pediatric and young adult patients. This study has been completed. A follow-up, multi-center study treating hypothalamic hamartomas using the same CT.gov number has begun recruiting.

A clinical trial by Carthera is recruiting pediatric patients with recurrent malignant brain tumors in France.

The following studies concern treatment of tumors from the body that have metastasized to the brain.

A clinical trial for patients with breast cancer that has metastasized to their brain is enrolling patients in Canada. The team will us focused ultrasound to open the blood-brain barrier to allow therapeutic medications to more effectively reach the tumor in their brain. This study is only open to Canadian citizens. A summary of the first four patients has been published.

A clinical trial for patients with lung cancer that has metastasized to the brain has begun recruiting patients in the US.

The following study concerns a wide variety of brain tumors.

This clinical trial is for a wide variety of brain tumors that are planned to be biopsied. This study is only open to Canadian citizens.

The Foundation updates these pages regularly, but with the increasing number of clinical trials, we want to be sure that our audience has the latest information available. Therefore, we also added the website search information for the above trials. If you click here, it will take you to the latest information available from https://www.clinicaltrials.gov/.

See a list of treatment sites >
See a list of clinical trials sites >
See a list of laboratory research sites >

Find a Treatment Site

Search for a treatment center or clinical trial near you.

Regulatory Approval and Reimbursement

Focused ultrasound is not approved by any regulatory bodies worldwide as a treatment for brain tumors, nor is the treatment reimbursed by medical insurance providers.

Preclinical Laboratory Studies

Preclinical studies are underway to investigate the use of various mechanisms of focused ultrasound in the treatment of brain tumors. Examples of these studies include:

Focused ultrasound to temporarily disrupt the BBB and deliver a variety of chemotherapy or immunotherapy drugs, including the dosing and timing (e.g. frequency) of drug administration.
Focused ultrasound to induce an immune response, including a multi-site study investigating the type of immune response elicited by different “modes” of energy delivery.
Focused ultrasound to enable targeted delivery and/or activation of drugs via carrier vehicles (e.g. microbubbles, nanoparticles, liposomes) to enable delivery of high concentrations in the tumor with minimal systemic side effects.
Non-thermal mechanical destruction of tumor using a type of focused ultrasound called histotripsy.

Additional Resources

There are many government bodies and patient groups dedicated to brain tumors, including the following:

Notable Papers

Suggested Reading: Focused Ultrasound for Glioblastoma (PDF), June 2021.

Lee S, Chang JW. From Ablation to Neuromodulation Platform: The Evolving Role of Magnetic Resonance-Guided Focused Ultrasound in Functional Neurosurgery. J Clin Neurol. 2026 Jan;22(1):17-41. doi: 10.3988/jcn.2025.0563. PMID: 41517810

Lipsman N, Hynynen K, Chen R, Lozano AM. Transcranial focused ultrasound in the human brain. Neuron. 2026 Jan 28:S0896-6273(25)00888-8. doi: 10.1016/j.neuron.2025.11.015. PMID: 41610842

Chen H, Xu Z, Zhang S. Preclinical studies of histotripsy for intracranial tumors. Front Neurol. 2026 Jan 13;16:1727225. doi: 10.3389/fneur.2025.1727225. eCollection 2025. PMID: 41607846

Jo NC, Chernyak V. Advancing Chronic Lesion Assessment After MRI-guided Focused Ultrasound Using T1/T2-weighted Ratio Maps. Radiology. 2026 Jan;318(1):e253878. doi: 10.1148/radiol.253878. PMID: 41591254

Harb M, Nouraein S, Szablowski JO. Site-specific noninvasive delivery of retrograde viral vectors to the brain. Bioeng Transl Med. 2025 Aug 21;11(1):e70062. doi: 10.1002/btm2.70062. eCollection 2026 Jan. PMID: 41573365

Chalet L, Nsimba F, Zambrano Zegarra M, Bertocchini N, Robert J, Augeul L, Leon C, Pillot B, Crola Da Silva C, Canet-Soulas E, Bidaux G. Renewing the theoretical framework of intensity correlation analysis to evaluate blood-brain barrier permeability with spectral fluorescence microscopy in mice. Comput Biol Med. 2026 Feb 1;202:111460. doi: 10.1016/j.compbiomed.2026.111460. Epub 2026 Jan 10. PMID: 41520473

Huang X, Luo X, Su T, Su K, Peng S, Li H. Manganese-based metal-organic frameworks augment postoperative immunotherapy of high-intensity focused ultrasound. J Colloid Interface Sci. 2026 Jan 6;708:139847. doi: 10.1016/j.jcis.2026.139847. PMID: 41518922

Lee H, Menezes V, Zeng S, Kim C, Baseman CM, Kim JH, Padmanabhan S, Premdas P, Djeddar N, Bryksin A, Pandey N, Anastasiadis P, Kim AJ, MacDonald TJ, Bettegowda C, Woodworth GF, Herrmann FJ, Arvanitis C. Data-Driven Feedback Identifies Focused Ultrasound Exposure Regimens for Improved Nanotheranostic Targeting of the Brain. Adv Sci (Weinh). 2026 Jan 7:e17834. doi: 10.1002/advs.202517834. PMID: 41498583

Satapathy M. High- and Low-Intensity Focused Ultrasound. Radiol Technol. 2026;97(3):199-204. doi: 10.1080/02656736.2025.2606701. PMID: 41490698

Lin JW, Fan CH, Kuo TT, Yeh CK. Combining focused ultrasound and microbubbles for enhancing the migration of mesenchymal stem cells to the brain. J Control Release. 2026 Feb 10;390:114585. doi: 10.1016/j.jconrel.2025.114585. Epub 2025 Dec 31. PMID: 41482205

Nowlin P, Zhang Y, Chrisholm A, Zhang H, Dai J, Owusu-Yaw BS, Young SP, Bali D, Upadhyay J, Todd N. Focused ultrasound delivery of enzyme replacement therapy to the brain of Gaa-/- Pompe disease mice. Mol Genet Metab. 2026 Jan;147(1):109294. doi: 10.1016/j.ymgme.2025.109294. Epub 2025 Nov 20. PMID: 41349290

Finlinson E, Snyder M, Riis T, Kubanek J. System for controlled mechanical therapies of the brain. Ultrasonics. 2026 Apr;160:107896. doi: 10.1016/j.ultras.2025.107896. Epub 2025 Nov 29. PMID: 41338146

Kantor J, Morrison M, Vanderslott S, Pollard AJ, Carlisle RC. Public attitudes towards intranasal and ultrasound mediated vaccine delivery: A cross-sectional study in the United Kingdom and United States. Vaccine. 2026 Jan 1;69:127950. doi: 10.1016/j.vaccine.2025.127950. Epub 2025 Nov 11. PMID: 41223692

Davidson B, Schmidt FA, Bichsel O, Hajiabadi MM, Lozano AM. Transcranial Focused Ultrasound: A Transformative Tool for Intracranial Ablation, Drug Delivery, and Neuromodulation. IEEE Rev Biomed Eng. 2026;19:201-215. doi: 10.1109/RBME.2025.3624970. PMID: 41217925

Liu J, He J, Chen X, Wu D. Manipulation of glymphatic system by focused ultrasound: A promising treatment of neurological diseases. J Cereb Blood Flow Metab. 2026 Jan;46(1):162-164. doi: 10.1177/0271678X251383857. Epub 2025 Oct 22. PMID: 41123223

De Maio A, Lin FH, Stefanovic B, O’Reilly MA. Tissue-type Differences in Focused Ultrasound and Microbubble-mediated Drug Delivery to the Brain Exist at Vessel Level. Theranostics. 2026 Jan 1;16(4):1975-1996. doi: 10.7150/thno.117691. eCollection 2026. PMID: 41356189

Mei CS, Zong S, Madore B, Cosgrove GR, McDannold NJ. Focus correction in MR thermography for increased targeting precision during focused ultrasound procedures. Magn Reson Med. 2026 Feb;95(2):951-961. doi: 10.1002/mrm.70089. Epub 2025 Sep 24. PMID: 40991818

Huang Y, Hynynen K. Technical Parameters and Feedback Control for Blood-Brain Barrier Permeability Enhancement by Focused Ultrasound. IEEE Rev Biomed Eng. 2025 Dec 2;PP. doi: 10.1109/RBME.2025.3636806. PMID: 41329597

Nabavizadeh A, Narsinh K, Kaufmann TJ, Liu H, Pouliopoulos AN, Prada F, Agarwal V, Ellingson BM, Sanvito F, Everson RG, Meng Y, Gandhi D, Chang SM, Wen PY, Ahluwalia MS, Sul N, Hadley L, Leblang S, Shah BR, Arvanitis CD, Burns TC, Moosa S, Woodworth GF. Focused Ultrasound in Brain Tumors: Mechanisms, Imaging Guidance, and Emerging Clinical Applications. AJNR Am J Neuroradiol. 2025 Dec 5:ajnr.A9126. doi: 10.3174/ajnr.A9126. PMID: 41360502

Di Cosmo L, Costa G, Centini FR, Hammond J, Mariola C, Pellicanò F, Totis F, Tam J, Lozano AM. A systematic review of the current trends and future directions of high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) in neurosurgery. Stereotact Funct Neurosurg. 2025 Dec 11:1-19. doi: 10.1159/000549834. PMID: 41379746

Boffelli L, Fimiani C, Núñez NG, Kienzler JC. Synergy of radiotherapy, focused ultrasound, and immunotherapy in the treatment of brain metastases. J Neurooncol. 2025 Dec 15;176(1):124. doi: 10.1007/s11060-025-05379-1. PMID: 41396538

Fadera S, Boas CAWV, Yue Y, Gu Z, Yuan J, De D, Rogers BE, Nazeri A, Chen H. Focused ultrasound-enhanced nose-to-brain delivery of a therapeutic antibody in a large-animal model. Theranostics. 2026 Jan 1;16(5):2156-2169. doi: 10.7150/thno.124354. eCollection 2026. PMID: 41424850

Mishra A, Payne C, Carrascal-Miniño A, Sunassee K, Halbherr S, Pouliopoulos AN, T M de Rosales R. PET imaging for non-invasive monitoring of 89Zr-Talidox delivery to the brain following focused ultrasound-mediated blood-brain barrier opening. J Control Release. 2025 Nov 10;387:114183. doi: 10.1016/j.jconrel.2025.114183. Epub 2025 Sep 1. PMID: 40902668

Estrada H, Liu C, Özbek A, Chen Z, Reiss M, Shoham S, Razansky D. Brain-wide hemodynamic responses to precise transcranial ultrasound neuromodulation. Brain Stimul. 2025 Nov 6;19(1):102978. doi: 10.1016/j.brs.2025.11.005. PMID: 41205798

Lee LC, Lo KK. Ultrasound-activatable transition metal complexes to potentiate sonodynamic therapy. Chem Sci. 2025 Nov 17. doi: 10.1039/d5sc06387f. PMID: 41257199

Freeman DK, Odegaard B, Yoo SS, Michel M. Transcranial focused ultrasound for identifying the neural substrate of conscious perception. Neurosci Biobehav Rev. 2025 Nov 19;180:106485. doi: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2025.106485. PMID: 41270981

Di H, Huang Y, Yu Q, Liu H, Xue C, Schnakers C, Laureys S, Monti MM. The efficacy and safety of low-intensity focused ultrasound pulses for prolonged disorders of consciousness: a study protocol for a randomized controlled trial. Front Neurol. 2025 Nov 6;16:1597567. doi: 10.3389/fneur.2025.1597567. eCollection 2025. PMID: 41281547

Fang J, Li N, Li H, Wang M, Wang L. In Vitro Assessment of Radiopharmaceutical Uptake in Brain Tumor Cells Using Focused Ultrasound Stimulation. Cancer Biother Radiopharm. 2025 Oct 24. doi: 10.1177/10849785251388809. PMID: 41132110

Phipps MA, Mishra A, Donovan CL, Newton AT, McKnight CD, Dockum AQ, Sigona MK, Yang PF, Caskey CF, Chen LM. Magnetic Resonance Imaging Monitoring of the Safety of Repeated Low-Intensity Focused Ultrasound Exposure at Three Brain Locations. Neuromodulation. 2025 Nov 1:S1094-7159(25)01039-6. doi: 10.1016/j.neurom.2025.09.313. PMID: 41175114

Wang Y, Wen Q, Hu A, Chen X, Liu J, Lin J, Xie Y. Advances in ultrasound-mediated brain drug delivery. J Pharm Pharmacol. 2025 Sep 27:rgaf090. doi: 10.1093/jpp/rgaf090. PMID: 41014313

Yu K, He B. Transcranial Focused Ultrasound Modulates Visual Thalamus in a Nonhuman Primate Model. IEEE Trans Biomed Eng. 2025 Oct;72(10):2893-2901. doi: 10.1109/TBME.2025.3554935. PMID: 40193266

Mohammadjavadi M, Ash RT, Glover GH, Pauly KB. Optimization of MR acoustic radiation force imaging (MR-ARFI) for human transcranial focused ultrasound. Magn Reson Med. 2025 Sep;94(3):1060-1071. doi: 10.1002/mrm.30539. Epub 2025 May 6. PMID: 40326562

Allen SP, Chen S, Yan K, Moore DA, Meyer CH. A retraced spiral strategy with semi-automatic deblurring for volumetric thermometry. Magn Reson Med. 2025 Oct;94(4):1432-1444. doi: 10.1002/mrm.30560. Epub 2025 May 20. PMID: 40391713

Sharma A, Zarcone K, Grissom WA. Magnitude preparation-based MR-acoustic radiation force imaging. Magn Reson Med. 2025 Oct;94(4):1445-1457. doi: 10.1002/mrm.30562. Epub 2025 May 30. PMID: 40443184

Guo T, Dong F, Yin J, Wang X, Min P, Zhang J, Cheng H, Zhang J. A novel ultrasound-responsive cluster bomb system for efficient siRNA delivery in brain. Ultrason Sonochem. 2025 Sep;120:107446. doi: 10.1016/j.ultsonch.2025.107446. Epub 2025 Jun 25. PMID: 40582054

Yang SM, Wu JR, Lin YL, Lin SJ, Chen WS, Hsiao MY. Parameter-dependent offline modulation of motor cortical excitability by transcranial low-intensity focused ultrasound: Evidence from rat models. Brain Res. 2025 Sep 15;1863:149813. doi: 10.1016/j.brainres.2025.149813. Epub 2025 Jul 4. PMID: 40617468

Mishra A, Payne C, Carrascal-Miniño A, Sunassee K, Halbherr S, Pouliopoulos AN, T M de Rosales R. PET imaging for non-invasive monitoring of 89Zr-Talidox delivery to the brain following focused ultrasound-mediated blood-brain barrier opening. J Control Release. 2025 Sep 1;387:114183. doi: 10.1016/j.jconrel.2025.114183. PMID: 40902668

Dauba A, Nguyen THV, Ador T, Spitzlei C, Porret E, Jourdain L, Selingue E, Moine L, Gennisson JL, Truillet C, Larrat B, Mériaux S, Delalande A, Tsapis N, Novell A. Hybrid lipidic and fluorinated polymer microbubbles for blood-brain barrier opening: a comparative study with SonoVue. Ultrason Sonochem. 2025 Oct;121:107540. doi: 10.1016/j.ultsonch.2025.107540. Epub 2025 Aug 31. PMID: 40912226

Nan Z, Shi L, Liu H, Han X, Chen J, Wu D, Wan M, Feng Y. Dual-Frequency HIFU-Activated Multifunctional Nanoparticles for Trimodal Synergistic Therapy and Immune Responses with Real-Time US/MRI Guidance. ACS Appl Mater Interfaces. 2025 Sep 24;17(38):53096-53109. doi: 10.1021/acsami.5c09753. Epub 2025 Sep 13. PMID: 40944627

Martin E, Roberts M, Grigoras IF, Wright O, Nandi T, Rieger SW, Campbell J, den Boer T, Cox BT, Stagg CJ, Treeby BE. Ultrasound system for precise neuromodulation of human deep brain circuits. Nat Commun. 2025 Sep 5;16(1):8024. doi: 10.1038/s41467-025-63020-1. PMID: 40913042

Arrieta VA, Gould A, Kim KS, Habashy KJ, Dmello C, Vázquez-Cervantes GI, Palacín-Aliana I, McManus G, Amidei C, Gomez C, Dhiantravan S, Chen L, Zhang DY, Saganty R, Cholak ME, Pandey S, McCord M, McCortney K, Castro B, Ward R, Muzzio M, Bouchoux G, Desseaux C, Canney M, Carpentier A, Zhang B, Miska JM, Lesniak MS, Horbinski CM, Lukas RV, Stupp R, Lee-Chang C, Sonabend AM. Ultrasound-mediated delivery of doxorubicin to the brain results in immune modulation and improved responses to PD-1 blockade in gliomas. Nat Commun. 2024 Jun 6;15(1):4698. doi: 10.1038/s41467-024-48326-w. PMID: 38844770 

Ri J, Pang N, Xu L, Ji N, Yue X, Kim I, Shen L, Zheng D. Numerical analysis of the acoustic pressure inside blood vessel with exposure to high-intensity focused ultrasound. Comput Methods Biomech Biomed Engin. 2025 Aug 4:1-15. doi: 10.1080/10255842.2025.2541896. PMID: 40760877

Rigollet S, Delphin A, Chalet L, Ador T, Dumont E, Lemasson B, Christen T, Pichon C, Delalande A, Stupar V, Barbier EL. Microvascular and astrocytic responses to repeated magnetic resonance-guided focused ultrasound. J Control Release. 2025 Aug 20;386:114151. doi: 10.1016/j.jconrel.2025.114151. PMID: 40845925

Sakharova G, Krokhmal A, Galimova R, Khatmullina A, Nabiullina D, Buzaev I, Avzaletdinova D, Chupova D, Khokhlova V. The use of alendronate to enhance transcranial transmission of focused ultrasound for successful ablations in brain. Ultrasonics. 2025 Aug 19;157:107796. doi: 10.1016/j.ultras.2025.107796. PMID: 40848325

Bahr-Hosseini M, Spivak NM, Hopkins AR, Cisneros S, Hanuscin C, Saha A, Gilbert J, Schafer S, Schafer ME, Liebeskind DS, Monti MM, Saver JL. Transcranial Ultrasonic Stimulation of Cerebellar Fastigial Nucleus: First-in-Human Feasibility Study. Brain Stimul. 2025 Aug 29:S1935-861X(25)00314-6. doi: 10.1016/j.brs.2025.08.020. PMID: 40886912

Habashy KJ, Synold TW, Feng Y, Gomez C, Amidei C, Ward R, VanderMolen S, Zarrieneh A, Kim KS, Gomez M, Arrieta VA, Fares J, Burdett KB, Zhang H, Dmello C, Chen L, Bebawy JF, Canney M, Stupp R, Badie B, Portnow J, Sonabend AM. Pharmacokinetic Analysis of Carboplatin and Fluorescein Brain Retention following Ultrasound-Based Blood-Brain Barrier Opening. Clin Cancer Res. 2025 Aug 14;31(16):3562-3570. doi: 10.1158/1078-0432.CCR-25-0080. PMID: 40495421

Katz JS, Slika H, Sattari SA, Malla AP, Xia Y, Antar A, Ran K, Tyler B. Overcoming the Blood-Brain Barrier for Drug Delivery to the Brain. ACS Omega. 2025 Jul 22;10(30):32544-32563. doi: 10.1021/acsomega.5c00364. eCollection 2025 Aug 5. PMID: 40787406

Young CC, Narsinh KH, Chen SR, Ansari SA, Hetts SW, Lang FF, Wintermark M, Kan PT. State of Practice: A Report from the Inaugural SNIS Neurointerventional Oncology Summit. AJNR Am J Neuroradiol. 2025 Jul 1:ajnr.A8902. doi: 10.3174/ajnr.A8902. PMID: 40592540

Ador T, Fournié M, Rigollet S, Counil C, Stupar V, Barbier EL, Pichon C, Delalande A. Ultrasound-Assisted Blood-Brain Barrier Opening Monitoring by Photoacoustic and Fluorescence Imaging Using Indocyanine Green. Ultrasound Med Biol. 2025 Jul;51(7):1059-1069. doi: 10.1016/j.ultrasmedbio.2025.02.016. Epub 2025 Mar 28. PMID: 40155229

Bhardwaj D, Youssef I, Imphean D, Holmes SK, Krishnan V, Estill-Terpack SJ, Diamond M, Chopra R, Bailey RM, Shah BR. Nitrous oxide enhances MR-guided focused ultrasound delivery of gene therapy to the murine hippocampus. Gene Ther. 2025 Jul;32(4):376-384. doi: 10.1038/s41434-025-00530-z. Epub 2025 May 6. PMID: 40328971

Rossano F, Aglioti SM, Apollonio F, Ruocco G, Liberti M. Probing phased-array focused ultrasound transducers using realistic 3D in-silico trabecular skull models: A numerical study. Ultrasonics. 2025 Oct;154:107692. doi: 10.1016/j.ultras.2025.107692. Epub 2025 May 11. PMID: 40373472

Kline-Schoder AR, Tsitsos FN, Batts AJ, DiBenedetto MR, Liu K, Bae S, Konofagou EE. Response of Serum-Isolated Extracellular Vesicles to Focused Ultrasound-Mediated Blood-Brain Barrier Opening. Ultrasound Med Biol. 2025 Aug;51(8):1316-1325. doi: 10.1016/j.ultrasmedbio.2025.04.019. Epub 2025 May 30. PMID: 40450507

Shmool TA, Martin LK, Jirkas A, Morse SV, Contini C, Elani Y, Hallett JP. Design Principles for Engineering Ionic Liquid-Gold Nanoparticles for Therapeutic Delivery to the Brain. ACS Nano. 2025 Jul 15;19(27):24806-24816. doi: 10.1021/acsnano.5c02375. Epub 2025 Jul 3. PMID: 40605559

Hey G, DeYoung C, Dagra A, Gillam W, Lucke-Wold B. An overview of focused ultrasound as a treatment option for gliomas. Expert Rev Neurother. 2025 Jul 20:1-16. doi: 10.1080/14737175.2025.2534615. PMID: 40685656

Beylerli O, Gareev I, Musaev E, Roumiantsev S, Chekhonin V, Ahmad A, Chao Y, Yang G. New approaches to targeted drug therapy of intracranial tumors. Cell Death Discov. 2025 Mar 20;11(1):111. doi: 10.1038/s41420-025-02358-3. PMID: 40113789

De Maio A, Huang Y, Lin FH, Stefanovic B, Stanisz GJ, O’Reilly MA. Evaluation of focused ultrasound modulation of the blood-brain barrier in gray and white matter. J Control Release. 2025 Mar 15;381:113631. doi: 10.1016/j.jconrel.2025.113631. PMID: 40096865

Koruk H, Payne C, Cressey P, Thanou M, Pouliopoulos AN. Delivering Gd-Labeled IgG Antibodies Into the Mouse Brain Following Focused Ultrasound Treatment. Ultrasound Med Biol. 2025 Mar 13:S0301-5629(25)00067-5. doi: 10.1016/j.ultrasmedbio.2025.02.015. PMID: 40087107

Tang Z, Niu H, Wu Y, Zhang Y, Zhang F, Wang C, Zhang S, Song X, Wang Y, Du L, Jin Y. Ultrasonic head-mounted device spatiotemporal opening blood-brain barrier enhances the brain permeation of drugs for treatment of radiation-induced brain injury. Int J Pharm. 2025 Mar 11;674:125430. doi: 10.1016/j.ijpharm.2025.125430. PMID: 40081430

Dai H, Li W, Wang Q, Cheng B. Multiple Instance Learning-Based Prediction of Blood-Brain Barrier Opening Outcomes Induced by Focused Ultrasound. IEEE Trans Biomed Eng. 2025 Apr;72(4):1465-1472. doi: 10.1109/TBME.2024.3509533. Epub 2025 Mar 21. PMID: 40030539

Ponomarchuk E, Tsysar S, Kadrev A, Kvashennikova A, Chupova D, Pestova P, Papikyan L, Karzova M, Danilova N, Malkov P, Chernyaev A, Buravkov S, Sapozhnikov O, Khokhlova V. Boiling Histotripsy in Ex Vivo Human Brain: Proof-of-concept. Ultrasound Med Biol. 2025 Feb;51(2):312-320. doi: 10.1016/j.ultrasmedbio.2024.10.006. Epub 2024 Oct 30. PMID: 39482208

Manuel TJ, Bancel T, Tiennot T, Didier M, Santin M, Daniel M, Attali D, Tanter M, Lehéricy S, Pyatigorskaya N, Aubry JF. Ultra-short time-echo based ray tracing for transcranial focused ultrasound aberration correction in human calvaria. Phys Med Biol. 2025 Mar 21;70(7). doi: 10.1088/1361-6560/ad4f44. PMID: 38776944

Gong Y, Xu K, Ye D, Yang Y, Miller MJ, Feng Z, Hu S, Chen H. In vivo two-photon microscopy imaging of focused ultrasound-mediated glymphatic transport in the mouse brain. J Cereb Blood Flow Metab. 2025 Feb 22:271678X251323369. doi: 10.1177/0271678X251323369. PMID: 39985197

Atkinson-Clement C, Kaiser M. Optimizing Transcranial Focused Ultrasound Stimulation: An Open-source Tool for Precise Targeting. Neuromodulation. 2025 Jan;28(1):185-187. doi: 10.1016/j.neurom.2024.06.496. Epub 2024 Jul 31. PMID: 39093260

Bawiec CR, Hollender PJ, Ornellas SB, Schachtner JN, Dahill-Fuchel JF, Konecky SD, Allen JJB. A Wearable, Steerable, Transcranial Low-Intensity Focused Ultrasound System. J Ultrasound Med. 2025 Feb;44(2):239-261. doi: 10.1002/jum.16600. Epub 2024 Oct 24. PMID: 39449176

Shah BR, Tanabe J, Jordan JE, Kern D, Harward SC, Feltrin FS, O’Suilliebhain P, Sharma VD, Maldjian JA, Boutet A, Mattay R, Sugrue LP, Narsinh K, Hetts S, Shah LM, Druzgal J, Lehman VT, Lee K, Khanpara S, Lad S, Kaufmann TJ. State of Practice on Transcranial MR-Guided Focused Ultrasound: A Report from the ASNR Standards and Guidelines Committee and ACR Commission on Neuroradiology Workgroup. AJNR Am J Neuroradiol. 2025 Jan 8;46(1):2-10. doi: 10.3174/ajnr.A8405. PMID: 39572202

Kaovasia TP, Duclos S, Gupta D, Kalayeh K, Fabiilli M, Noll DC, Sukovich J, Pandey A, Xu Z, Hall TL. A pre-clinical MRI-guided all-in-one focused ultrasound system for murine brain studies. Sci Rep. 2025 Jan 2;15(1):144. doi: 10.1038/s41598-024-84078-9. PMID: 39747938

Young JS, Semonche A, Morshed RA, Al-Adli NN, Haddad AF, Gerritsen JKW, Saggi S, Narsinh K, de Groot J, Aghi MK. Focused ultrasound therapy as a strategy for improving glioma treatment. J Neurosurg. 2025 Jan 24:1-10. doi: 10.3171/2024.9.JNS24721. PMID: 39854698

Arsiwala TA, Blethen KE, Wolford CP, Pecar GL, Panchal DM, Kielkowski BN, Wang P, Ranjan M, Carpenter JS, Finomore V, Rezai A, Lockman PR. Single Exposure to Low-Intensity Focused Ultrasound Causes Biphasic Opening of the Blood-Brain Barrier Through Secondary Mechanisms. Pharmaceutics. 2025 Jan 8;17(1):75. doi: 10.3390/pharmaceutics17010075. PMID: 39861723

Giantini-Larsen AM, Pandey A, Garton ALA, Rampichini M, Winston G, Goldberg JL, Magge R, Stieg PE, Souweidane MM, Ramakrishna R. Therapeutic manipulation and bypass of the blood-brain barrier: powerful tools in glioma treatment. Neurooncol Adv. 2025 Jan 15;7(1):vdae201. doi: 10.1093/noajnl/vdae201. eCollection 2025. PMID: 39877748

Gould A, Luan Y, Hou Y, Korobova FV, Chen L, Arrieta VA, Amidei C, Ward R, Gomez C, Castro B, Habashy K, Zhang D, Youngblood M, Dmello C, Bebawy J, Bouchoux G, Stupp R, Canney M, Yue F, Iruela-Arispe ML, Sonabend AM. Endothelial Response to Blood-Brain Barrier Disruption in the Human Brain. JCI Insight. 2024 Dec 26:e187328. doi: 10.1172/jci.insight.187328. PMID: 39724015

Erickson NJ, Stavarache M, Ibrahim T, Kaplitt MG, Markert JM. Herpes Simplex Oncolytic Viral Therapy for Malignant Glioma and Mechanisms of Delivery. World Neurosurg. 2024 Dec 20:123595. doi: 10.1016/j.wneu.2024.123595. PMID: 39710201

Mekers V, de Visser M, Suijkerbuijk K, Bos C, Moonen C, Deckers R, Adema G. Mechanical HIFU and immune checkpoint inhibition: toward clinical implementation. Int J Hyperthermia. 2024;41(1):2430333. doi: 10.1080/02656736.2024.2430333. Epub 2024 Nov 20.PMID: 39566471 

Huang Q, Zhou Y, Pan L, Chen Y, Wang N, Li K, Bai J, Ji X. Experimental Evaluation of an Ultrasound-Guided High-Intensity-Focused Ultrasound Probe for Sonication of Artery. J Ultrasound Med. 2024 Dec;43(12):2357-2373. doi: 10.1002/jum.16571. Epub 2024 Sep 6. PMID: 39240034

Chen H, Anastasiadis P, Woodworth GF. MR Imaging-Guided Focused Ultrasound-Clinical Applications in Managing Malignant Gliomas. Magn Reson Imaging Clin N Am. 2024 Nov;32(4):673-679. doi: 10.1016/j.mric.2024.05.006. Epub 2024 Jun 22. PMID: 39322356

Martinez PJ, Song JJ, Castillo JI, DeSisto J, Song KH, Green AL, Borden M. Effect of Microbubble Size, Composition, and Multiple Sonication Points on Sterile Inflammatory Response in Focused Ultrasound-Mediated Blood-Brain Barrier Opening. ACS Biomater Sci Eng. 2024 Nov 5. doi: 10.1021/acsbiomaterials.4c00777. PMID: 39497639

Epstein JE, Pople CB, Meng Y, Lipsman N. An update on the role of focused ultrasound in neuro-oncology. Curr Opin Neurol. 2024 Dec 1;37(6):682-692. doi: 10.1097/WCO.0000000000001314. Epub 2024 Oct 4. PMID: 39498847

Gupta D, Kaovasia TP, Komaiha M, Nielsen JF, Allen SP, Hall TL, Noll DC, Xu Z. Transcranial MRI-guided Histotripsy Targeting Using MR-thermometry and MR-ARFI. Ultrasound Med Biol. 2024 Nov 25:S0301-5629(24)00406-X. doi: 10.1016/j.ultrasmedbio.2024.10.010. PMID: 39592380

Xu S, Meng L, Hu Q, Li F, Zhang J, Kong N, Xing Z, Hong G, Zhu X. Closed-Loop Control of Macrophage Engineering Enabled by Focused-Ultrasound Responsive Mechanoluminescence Nanoplatform for Precise Cancer Immunotherapy. Small. 2024 Nov;20(46):e2401398. doi: 10.1002/smll.202401398. Epub 2024 Aug 5. PMID: 39101277

Ahmed AK, Woodworth GF, Gandhi D. Transcranial Focused Ultrasound: A History of Our Future. Magn Reson Imaging Clin N Am. 2024 Nov;32(4):585-592. doi: 10.1016/j.mric.2024.04.002. Epub 2024 Jul 25. PMID: 39322349

Click here for additional references from PubMed.

Video courtesy of Insightec