The Blood-Brain Barrier Challenge

For patients with brain cancer, one of the biggest challenges is getting chemotherapy and therapeutic agents to reach tumors and surrounding tissues. This is due to the blood-brain barrier (BBB) that naturally protects the brain. The BBB works to keep any toxic or inflammatory molecules in the blood from reaching the brain.

However, the BBB’s natural protection of the brain also prevents chemotherapy and therapeutic agents from effectively reaching brain tumors and surrounding tissues. This means the effectiveness of chemotherapy and therapeutic agents for brain cancer can be limited.

To help chemotherapy effectively reach brain tumors and surrounding tissues, doctors are researching a way to temporarily disrupt the BBB. As a result, the SONOBIRD study is evaluating an investigational ultrasound device called SonoCloud-9, which is designed to help carboplatin chemotherapy reach the brain more effectively.

The Purpose of the Study

Study doctors want to compare the effectiveness of SonoCloud-9 combined with carboplatin chemotherapy to standard treatments for the first recurrence of glioblastoma.

Evaluating the SonoCloud-9 Device

SonoCloud-9 is a medical device that is implanted in the skull bone, just beneath the skin on the head. When it is activated, it emits low-intensity ultrasound waves into the brain to open the BBB and help chemotherapy and therapeutic agents more effectively target brain cancer.

To open the BBB, SonoCloud-9 is activated before or after an infusion of chemotherapy. It then emits ultrasound waves into the brain for 4 minutes.

These waves can disrupt the BBB for a few hours. During this time, chemotherapy circulating in the blood will be able to reach tumors and surrounding tissues in higher concentrations.