Key Points
- EANO held its 17th Annual Meeting from September 15–18 in Vienna.
- Carthera had a prominent presence at the meeting, hosting a lunch symposium and sharing data from its glioblastoma clinical trial.
- The liquid biopsy consortium meeting included an overview of the ongoing work with focused ultrasound.
The European Association of Neuro-Oncology (EANO) held its 17th Annual Meeting from September 15–18, 2022, in Vienna. In the setting of the Hofburg Imperial Palace, approximately 850 neuro-oncologists, neurologists, neurosurgeons, nurses, and scientists shared and discussed recent findings in basic, translational, and clinical science from all fields of neuro-oncology (brain tumors).
French ultrasound manufacturer Carthera sponsored the meeting lanyards and presented a well-attended (350 attendees) corporate lunch symposium with presentations and a panel discussion featuring:
- Michael Canney, PhD
- Alexandre Carpentier, MD, PhD
- Ahmed Idbaih, MD, PhD
- Riccardo Soffietti, MD
- Adam Sonabend, MD
- Roger Stupp, MD
In the highlights from clinical abstracts session, Dr. Idbaih shared new data from Carthera’s Phase 1/2 clinical trial of blood-brain barrier (BBB) opening with the SonoCloud-9 implantable ultrasound device in participants with recurrent glioblastoma (GBM) receiving IV carboplatin. He summarized the results from the trial, which enrolled 33 participants who received 90 sonications. The procedure was easy to perform in less than 10 minutes, well tolerated, and repeatedly feasible over a large volume. Sonication was shown to improve drug delivery (i.e., a 5.9x increase in carboplatin concentration in a select group of patients) and improve radiological and clinical outcomes when performed at peak concentration of carboplatin. A pivotal randomized trial for recurrent GBM is planned.
“Beyond the Carthera presentation, focused ultrasound was mentioned in several of the talks, especially for drug delivery,” said Suzanne LeBlang, MD, the Foundation’s Director of Clinical Relationships, who attended the meeting. “Even researchers who do not currently use focused ultrasound were describing how it could impact the field by delivering different substances to the brain.”
Hideho Okada, MD, PhD, and Nino Chiocca, MD, PhD, presented information on immunotherapy approaches and suggested that innovative strategies, such as convection–enhanced delivery and ultrasound with microbubbles, can help deliver high molecular weight agents that cannot cross the BBB alone.
A dedicated session on “Liquid Biomarkers for Diagnosis/Disease Tracking in CNS Tumors” presented many new advances for the field. “I was appreciative for the invitation to also participate in a separate liquid biopsy (LB) consortium meeting led by Susan Short, MD, PhD, where I presented an overview of focused ultrasound–enhanced LB,” Dr. LeBlang added. The LB consortium will reconvene for another progress update during the Society of Neuro-Oncology meeting in November.
In another session, Sabine Mueller, MD, PhD, MAS, delivered the presentation “Clinical Trials – A Transatlantic Perspective,” in which she discussed the Focused DMG Consortium to assess the use of focused ultrasound in diffuse intrinsic pontine gliomas. Participating institutions include Children’s National Hospital in Washington DC, Prinses Maxima Centrum, University Kinderspital Zurch, Virginia Tech, and UCSF.
EANO showcased more than 370 oral and poster presentations. The following abstracts, which address the treatment of GBM, are of interest to the focused ultrasound community:
- Dr. LeBlang reports: In this presentation, Professor Michael Platten, MD, described how focused ultrasound could be used to activate T cells and make the tumor microenvironment “hot.” The resulting discussion focused on the tumor microenvironment and the role of cytokines.
- Dr. LeBlang reports: In this clinical trial, 33 participants were implanted with the SonoCloud-9 device and received sonications with IV carboplatin for a total of 90 sonications. Adverse events included two wound infections and two cerebrospinal fluid leaks. The study showed that chemotherapy uptake was 5.9 times higher in the treated area of BBB opening. In a cohort that received IV carboplatin just prior to sonication (n=12 patients) a 1-yr OS of 58% was reported.
P14.05.B Plasma-EV based liquid biopsy for precision medicine in the treatment of glioblastoma
- Dr. LeBlang reports: In this study, the group isolated EV from 2 mL of blood plasma and found the RNA and DNA to mirror the genomic profile of the parental tumor. The group concluded that “Plasma-EV based liquid biopsy could implement the personalization of GBM care for every timepoint of the disease course.”
The Foundation sponsored a booth at the meeting where many attendees stopped by to learn more about the technology, manufacturers, our organization, and the larger research community. Dr. LeBlang encourages more focused ultrasound manufacturers to attend future EANO meetings!