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    56 years ago

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Five years ago, Karl Helfrich’s world seemed to Five years ago, Karl Helfrich’s world seemed to suddenly shut down. Karl put his head down on his desk and could not speak coherently. Minutes later, he couldn’t recall what he had said. After a battery of tests, MRI scans revealed a lesion in Karl’s brain, and he was referred to neurosurgeon Antonio Chiocca, MD, PhD, for treatment. After a successful operation and a standard course of chemotherapy and radiation to treat what was now known to be glioblastoma, Karl received an unusual invitation. “I was asked if I wanted to participate in a clinical trial that would use focused ultrasound to disrupt the blood brain barrier,” Karl recalls. Through lab experiments in the BWH Focused Ultrasound Laboratory over the last three decades, researchers have laid a strong foundation of evidence that the combination of FUS and microbubbles could provide a temporary opening in the BBB with the potential to improve treatment outcomes. But clinical trials were needed to know for certain. Karl accepted the trial invitation, and after months of the trial treatments, the team discovered that it worked. “I don’t know whether I’m doing well today because of the surgery, the radiation, the chemotherapy, the focused ultrasound, my genetics, or some combination,” Karl says. “But it was gratifying to see the results and to know that I had helped.”

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