 Treating brain tumors has been a major challenge. I'm Graham Woodworth, the head of neurosurgery at the University of Maryland. We are drawing outside the lines to discuss the complexities of treating patients with brain tumors and what we're doing at the University of Maryland to improve this. Here we have a depiction of the human brain. One of the critical things that limits the brain from the rest of the body is a structure called the blood-brain barrier. What this is, is a difference in the blood vessels that enter into the brain that separate things from otherwise getting into the brain that would be able to move through these blood vessels and into the body. So this structure is called the blood-brain barrier, and it limits drugs and other treatments from entering into the brain. One of the technologies that we have been working on with companies and others across the country is called focused ultrasound. Focused ultrasound can now be applied into the brain safely through the intact skull, which separates the brain from the skin. So using focused ultrasound, we can activate small micro bubbles that circulate through the bloodstream. These micro bubbles are used as diagnostic agents in other areas of radiology. But in activating them within the brain blood vessels, they are able to move and oscillate within these blood vessels and cause small disruptions in these walls, allowing treatments to enter into the brain where these ultrasound fields are applied. In the context of a brain tumor that may be located deep within the brain, we may be able to remove or treat parts of that tumor with surgery or other therapies, but we know in many cases that there are still invading tumor cells that are adjacent to and outside of that treated region. The reason these tumor cells can't be removed currently is because they're in functioning brain regions that we would not be able to remove without hurting the patient. Therefore, opening the blood-brain barrier in these regions where we know the invasive tumor cells are would be an ideal way to deliver treatments selectively to these regions while sparing the rest of the brain. Using Focus Ultrasound, we're now able to create a three-dimensional opening of the blood-brain barrier in these regions around brain tumors and allow the treatments to come in from the blood vessels for the first time. This is an exciting way and new technology that may change the face of brain tumor treatment.