Virginia Tech researchers explore new way to treat aggressive brain tumors

MONTGOMERY COUNTY, Va. (WRIC) — A team from Virginia Teach and Georgia Tech have explored a new option that could eventually be used to target glioblastoma, a deadly brain tumor.

According to a university spokesperson, the work builds upon past research on high frequency irreversible electroporation, or H-FIRE, which is a minimally invasive process that uses non-thermal electrical pulses to break down cancer cells.

Brain cancers present an additional challenge for treatment in comparison to other cancers, as the blood-brain barrier defends the brain against toxic material. This is usually helpful, but can render treatments less effective.

The square-shape wave usually used with H-FIRE both disrupts the blood-brain barrier around the tumor while destroying cancer cells, according to the spokesperson. However, this was the firs study to use what is known as a “sinusoidal” wave to disrupt the barrier. This new method is called “burst sine wave electroporation” (B-SWE).

“Research indicates that the conventional square waveforms show good blood-brain barrier disruption, but this study finds even better blood-brain barrier disruption with B-SWE. This could allow more cancer-fighting drugs to access the brain,” the spokesperson explained.

The next research step is to use an animal model of brain cancer to study the effects of B-SWE and see how the sinusoidal waveform stands up against the conventional H-FIRE technique.

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