Key Points
- SNO held its 27th annual meeting and education day November 16-20, 2022.
- Investigators presented abstracts on using focused ultrasound to treat brain metastases and recurrent glioblastoma.
- Focused ultrasound—enhanced liquid biopsy was discussed with other researchers in the liquid biopsy session.
- Devices from Insightec, Carthera, and Cordance Medical were represented.
SNO held its 27th Annual Meeting and Education Day in Tampa Bay, Florida, from November 16–20, 2022. With an in-person attendance of 2,500, the conference broke its previous attendance record. Along with the Foundation, many other nonprofits and patient advocacy organizations that support brain tumor research were represented, which created productive networking and collaboration opportunities.
Suzanne LeBlang, MD, the Foundation’s Director of Clinical Relationships, attended many sessions at SNO and said, “Overall, I was impressed by the number of studies presented by focused ultrasound researchers. New research efforts clearly show the potential of this incisionless technology to combat brain tumors with numerous mechanisms of action.”
At the liquid biopsy meeting, Dr. LeBlang presented an update on the state of the field of focused ultrasound–enhanced liquid biopsy for brain tumors and how focused ultrasound blood-brain barrier opening in and around a brain tumor could enhance the quantity and perhaps quality of analytes detected in the peripheral blood.
Investigators presented abstracts and posters on using focused ultrasound to treat glioblastoma, primary brain tumors, and brain metastases with blood-brain barrier opening as well as sonodynamic therapy as the mechanisms of action. Focused ultrasound—enhanced liquid biopsy, a mechanism of action that has the potential to make a big impact in brain cancer diagnosis and treatment, and drug delivery approaches were also presented. Hideho Okada, MD, PhD, from the University of California, San Francisco, presented “Immunotherapy for Patients with IDH-Mutant LGG,” a keynote lecture and mentioned that focused ultrasound has the potential to enhance chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell delivery.
Each abstract is listed below. The full text for each abstract can be found by searching the ID number on SNO’s program website.
CTNI-10 – Randomized pivotal study of blood-brain barrier (BBB) disruption using Exablate Model 4000 with standard of care (SOC) therapy in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) brain metastases: LIMITLESS trial (Multiple medical centers, Insightec) poster presented by Manmeet S. Ahluwalia
CTNI-13 – A first-in-human phase 0/1 trial of 5-Aminolevulinic Acid Sonodynamic Therapy (5-ALA SDT) in recurrent glioblastoma (Barrow Neurological Institute and Ivy Brain Tumor Center) oral abstract presented by Nader Sanai
CTNI-20 – Results of a phase 1/2 clinical trial of blood-brain barrier (BBB) opening with the SonoCloud-9 implantable ultrasound device in recurrent glioblastoma patients receiving IV carboplatin (Multiple medical centers, Carthera) poster presented by Michael Canney
CTNI-37 – Repeated opening of the blood-brain barrier with the skull-implantable SonoCloud-9 (SC9) device: Phase 1 trial of nab-paclitaxel and SC9 in recurrent glioblastoma (multiple medical centers, Carthera) oral abstract presented by Adam Sonabend
CTNI-46 – Pivotal study to evaluate safety and efficacy of Exablate model 4000 using microbubble resonators to temporarily mediate blood-brain barrier disruption for liquid biopsy in glioblastoma (LIBERATE) (Multiple medical centers, Insightec) poster presented by Manmeet S. Ahluwalia
CTNI-64 – Focused ultrasound mediated blood-brain barrier penetrance to enable cell-free DNA (cfDNA) as a liquid biopsy in recurrent primary brain tumors (Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and Cordance Medical) – poster presented by Ryan Dittamore
DDEL-10 – Ultrasound-enhanced drug delivery in humans alters endothelial phenotype and perturbs the ultrastructure of the blood-brain barrier (Northwestern University, Carthera) poster presented by Andrew Gould
DDEL-13 – Ultrasound-enhanced delivery of liposomal doxorubicin across the blood brain barrier induces an IFN-g phenotype in microglia, macrophages, and T cells and improves response to PD-1 blockade in gliomas (Northwestern University, IIT Research Institute, Carthera) poster presented by Victor A. Arrieta