HCA Healthcare's Johnston-Willis Hospital in Richmond, Va., is the first in the nation to provide a new treatment for patients with brain metastases from lung cancer.
The clinical trial is investigating the potential benefit of combining noninvasive focused ultrasound with systemic immunotherapy, according to an Oct. 12 system news release. The treatment opens the blood-brain barrier, which defends the brain against harmful substances, to help critical medications reach the critical lesions in the brain.
Two patients have begun the six-treatment cycles.
"The potential success of this trial could be groundbreaking in the management of metastatic brain tumors not only for lung cancer, but also for breast cancer and melanoma," principal investigator K. Singh Sahni, MD, neurosurgeon and medical director of the Neuroscience and Gamma Knife Center at Johnston-Willis Hospital, said in the release.
The trial is expected to conclude in August.
HCA Healthcare is based in Nashville, Tenn.