Cleveland Clinic doctors are treating brain cancer patients with a new device.
Brain catheters developed by the hospital and Parker Hannifin Corp. are designed to bypass the blood brain barrier and allow drugs to be directly administered to the tumor.
Cleveland Clinic neurosurgeon Dr. Michael Vogelbaum said the catheters are an innovation for treating glioblastoma.
“There are trials that were done a decade ago that were using just tubes off the shelf, and as it turns out, those tubes were later found to be completely ineffective for delivery," he said. "There were promising therapeutics that never really had a chance because they weren't effectively delivered. Now we’ve shown we can effectively deliver.”
Vogelbaum said the new catheters are undergoing trials to treat other brain conditions as well.
The Food and Drug Administration approved the device in 2017 after 12 successful trials with patients.
