Summary
The brain is protected from any toxic or inflammatory molecule by the blood-brain barrier
(BBB). This physical barrier is located at the level of the blood vessel walls. Because
of these barrier properties, the blood vessels are also impermeable to the passage of
therapeutic molecules from the blood to the brain. The development of effective
treatments against glioblastoma is thus limited due to the BBB that prevents most drugs
injected in the bloodstream from getting into brain tissue where the tumour is seated.
The SonoCloud-9 (SC9) is an investigational device using ultrasound technology and
specially developed to open the BBB in the area of and surrounding the tumour. The
transient opening of the BBB allows more drugs to reach the brain tumour tissue.
Carboplatin is a chemotherapy that is approved to treat different cancer types alone or
in combination with other drugs, and has been used in the treatment of glioblastoma.
Despite its proven efficacy in the laboratory on glioblastoma cells, carboplatin does not
readily cross the BBB in humans. A clinical trial has shown that in combination with the
SonoCloud-9, more carboplatin can reach the brain tumour tissue. The objective of the
proposed trial is to show that the association - carboplatin with the SonoCloud-9 - will
increase efficacy of the drug in patients with recurrent glioblastoma.