Methodological and ethical challenges in the use of focused ultrasound for blood-brain barrier disruption in neuro-oncology.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Focused ultrasound (FUS) shows promise for enhancing drug delivery to the brain by temporarily opening the blood-brain barrier (BBB), and it is increasingly used in the clinical setting to treat brain tumours. It remains however unclear whether FUS is being introduced in an ethically and methodologically sound manner. The IDEAL-D framework for the introduction of surgical innovations and the SYRCLE and ROBINS-I tools for assessing the risk of bias in animal studies and non-randomized trials, respectively, provide a comprehensive evaluation for this.

Objectives and methods

A comprehensive literature review on FUS in neuro-oncology was conducted. Subsequently, the included studies were evaluated using the IDEAL-D framework, SYRCLE, and ROBINS-I tools.

Results

SUBMITTER: Thavarajasingam SG 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10739192 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature