Noninvasive Brain Tumor Biopsy Using Focused Ultrasound

Unlike many other tumors, ones found in the brain are usually too dangerous to take biopsies of. Now the researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis came up with a revolutionary new way of using focused ultrasound to get tumors to release biomarkers that can then be spotted using blood samples.

Thanks to MRI, the investigators were able to target tumors, shaking them up and the blood-brain barrier as well. The tumors release their biomarkers and because the blood-brain barrier has been made more permeable, these can pass into the blood stream. So far this has been tried in laboratory mice and there's already talk about moving this toward getting approvals for clinical trials.

Here's a video report from Washington University about the new indirect biopsy method:

Study in journal Scientific Reports: Focused Ultrasound-enabled Brain Tumor Liquid Biopsy…

Via: Washington University in St. Louis…

from # All Medicine by Alexandros G. Sfakianakis via alkiviadis.1961 on Inoreader https://ift.tt/2JF3ovy