by
Loren Bonner, DOTmed News Online Editor | January 10, 2014
From the January 2014 issue of HealthCare Business News magazine
Around the globe, there are nearly two dozen companies invested in developing FUS technology. In the U.S., all of these companies rely on MR scanners to guide therapy, but in other countries, ultrasound imaging is sometimes used to guide the treatment. In a typical scenario, a patient lies in an MRI with a transducer attached to the area being treated. The MRI scan is paired with the ultrasound images. Some researchers, working with companies like SonaCare Medical and Philips, are trying to make that real-time image acquisition process less tedious through fusion algorithms.
Besides success to treat uterine fibroids, InSightec is in a position to see its system, the ExAblate Neuro, commercially available in the U.S. to treat patients with essential tremor, a neurological disease characterized by shaky hands and limbs that affects roughly 10 million Americans.
In August, 2013, the Phase III study for the device began that will evaluate a large cohort of patients in eight sites around the world. Radiation treatment and surgery can currently treat essential tremor, but these options have drawbacks for many patients. Medication is also available, but drugs can vary in effectiveness with many patients not responding to them. Golumbic says InSightec’s technology is not meant to compete with drugs and instead can be looked at as another option for these patients — often referred to as “medication refractory” — who don’t want to undergo surgery or radiation therapy.
While the gamma knife is able to treat essential tremor noninvasively using the same target as the ExAblate would, some patients are reluctant to go through with radiation treatment because it can take up to three months before results appear. Another treatment option available for patients is something called deep brain stimulation. However, it’s an invasive procedure where a pacemaker-type device is surgically implanted into the base of the patient’s neck to control tremors. Most cases also require the patient to be awake for part of the procedure.
According to Golumbic, ExAblate has treated roughly 50 patients so far for essential tremor.
Although final results of the ExAblate Phase III trial won’t be available for about two years, the technology’s success with essential tremor could pave the way for other treatment applications, like Parkinson’s disease, epilepsy and even OCD and depression. InSightec has just begun a trial for ExAblate on Parkinson’s disease patients and they also have an early stage trial underway in Korea to treat OCD.
